


Combination

by epistretes



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, BAMF Tifa Lockhart, Battles a mix of OG and Remake mechanics, Blood and Violence, Broken Bones, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Don Corneo audition, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Major Character Injury, Matricide, Mentioned Aerith Gainsborough, Mentioned Angeal Hewley, Mentioned Don Corneo (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Even Townshend (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Genesis Rhapsodos, Mentioned Hojo (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Jenova (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Lazard Deusericus (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Loz (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Ms. Folia (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Reeve Tuesti, Mentioned Reno's Father (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Reno's Mother (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Ruluf | Two Guns (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Yazoo (Compilation of FFVII), Mentioned Zack Fair, Minor Character Death, Minor Cid Highwind/Shera (Compilation of FFVII), Minor Lucrecia Crescent/Vincent Valentine, Minor Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife, Minor Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough, Minor off screen Reno/OFC, Murder, Past Domestic Violence, Patricide, Physical Disability, Planet Scar Syndrome | Geostigma, Prostitution, Reno is a murderer, Reti, The Maiden Who Travels the Planet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:07:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epistretes/pseuds/epistretes
Summary: What happens when the world you save is not this one, but the next?
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart/Reno, Yuffie Kisaragi/Rude
Comments: 14
Kudos: 19





	1. Meteorfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meteor struck and obliterated everything, living or otherwise in its path. Midgar was reduced to a 20-mile wide crater in the East Continent and residents of that continent as far as Junon felt it. No living thing was left on that continent and the shockwave and plume of dust and debris in the air circulated the globe and within three weeks, all living things on Gaia were choked and starved to death by the dust layer that blanketed the sky and prevented the light and warmth from the sun reaching the ground; excepting those protected in crystal in the Northern Crater and the Crystal Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was mostly inspired by taking the 'Opposites Attract' notion and running with it. In the Remake especially, but throughout the Compilation, Aerith & Holy are connected with the colours Yellow and White and Sephiroth is connected with the colours Purple and Black.
> 
> On a colour wheel, yellow and purple are opposites and there are both yellow and purple materia and flowers in the canon materials. The yellow flowers are more closely aligned with the protagonists/deuteragonists and the purple flowers are more closely aligned with the antagonists.
> 
> Also, I will denote at the beginning of the chapters the more dire warning tags point towards, but there is referenced domestic abuse, murder and the like as well as some graphic depictions of violence within. I will let you know where and how you can skip these parts if you wish to, but as I have been very explicit with my warnings, no complaints about such content will be heeded.
> 
> The whole fic is planned out and I hope to have a weekly schedule on this for chapter release. Two chapters are already written but I do have quite a lot on my plate with work right now so I will do my best to stick to this.

"What do we do now?" Tifa Lockhart looked over at her friend Cloud Strife; fear bright in her red eyes as the knowledge that they had failed, despite all their efforts, settled in. They had failed to save the Planet, they had beaten back Sephiroth but not killed him - and now the Meteor summoned by the Black Materia was speeding towards Gaia with certainty of imminent strike.

"We watch." Cloud said simply, though he did reach out his hand to her and took hers in his own. They had been children together, they had found one another again against all odds and fought together and now - now they would die together.

"Yeah." She agreed and looked up at him, eyes softening warmly.

"This sucks!" Yuffie pouted to their left and Tifa smiled sadly as their friends gathered behind them. It did indeed, suck.

Arrayed around the three that had lead the charge, Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon lifted his head and howled a mournful howl for the demise of all life on the Planet. Barret stood beside him and placed his hand gently and comfortingly on Nanaki's haunches as he looked to the sky and wished his Marlene would feel no pain and that he would meet her again in the Lifestream.

Cid Highwind put out his cigarette and stared up at the stars that had held so much fascination and that he had finally reached, only for that same cosmos to spell disaster for his world via immense celestial object. Vincent Valentine was at his side, mind firmly in a far away Crystal Cave. Cait Sith sat silently atop it's moogle mount and observed the end of everything as its human counterpart huddled with the other evacuees under the Midgar plate.

"Aerith!" Tifa gasped, her hand twitching against Cloud's in shock as she swore she had seen her friend's face in the sky moments before the pure white light of Holy gave up trying to stop the inexorable pull of the meteor to Gaia on its own and it whipped lightning-fast across the planet's crust and swirled around the eight beings in the crater. No other sound or breath escaped Tifa's lips as she was frozen in time and place by the light an instant before meteor obliterated Midgar with Cloud and Yuffie. The others were also encapsulated in egg shaped protective shields.

Behind them in the Northern Crater of Gaia where once, long ago, Jenova fell, her genetically-altered 'son' recrystallised and went into stasis as he had done previously, protecting him from Holy's magic. AVALANCHE's efforts having prevented him being over Midgar where he had planned to be to absorb the power of the Lifestream at the wound left by Meteor. 

He could be patient, as patient as his 'mother' had been once before him. There would be another chance some day.

Around him, three small smudges of darkness had started to take shape as the mako crystal encapsulated them and he welcomed his brothers to him in his protective shell.

They could be useful.

\---

Reno of the Turks had overseen the evacuation of the Sector Four top plate and got the citizens of Shin-Ra's city under the plate in a doomed bid for survival. Reeve's plan to use the plate as a protective shield was a desperate one - and ultimately, a fatally flawed one.

Nothing could stop Meteor now and he looked over at Tseng, at Elena and the other arrayed former Turks he had thought dead and felt oddly okay with it all. He looked at Rude, who had removed his sunglasses, gave him a lopsided smirk and felt at peace. He wondered if Rufus was alone - they had located him and sent him off to a hospital while they evacuated - and hoped he was not.

"Hey, partner, see ya in the Lifestream."

"Mmm." Rude placed a hand on his partner's shoulder and Reno felt the comfort. Rude was never verbose and this meant a lot in their final moments. 

Meteor struck and obliterated everything, living or otherwise in its path. Midgar was reduced to a 20-mile wide crater in the East Continent and residents of that continent as far as Junon felt it. No living thing was left on that continent and the shockwave and plume of dust and debris in the air circulated the globe and within three weeks, all living things on Gaia were choked and starved to death by the dust layer that blanketed the sky and prevented the light and warmth from the sun reaching the ground; excepting those protected in crystal in the Northern Crater and the Crystal Cave.

\---

There was a woman who travelled the Planet within the Lifestream. She was new to her travels and had not yet completely mastered the pulse of life and death and it had not responded to her pleas to augment the magic of Holy and prevent Meteor making landfall.

Her desperate pleas had not been entirely in vain and, when she joined with another who travelled the Planet - one who felt so familiar - they joined hands and wanted to protect life and give those who lived on the Planet another chance; as they had both done in life.

She knew Holy could not succeed alone, so she redirected it to protect a few she had loved dearly. She could not save everyone and she could not split Holy to protect those further afield, but she _could_ do this. Encasing them in stasis, the woman and the man turned their attention to those souls who had returned to the Lifestream en masse. 

They offered them the decision, to remain in the Lifestream as sentient beings to be returned when the Planet was once again habitable or to dissolve into the aether and become one with the Planet.

A surprising amount decided enough was enough, whether through guilt, weariness or disbelief, the woman knew not; she did not take their choice from them and they replenished the depleted Lifestream. Humans had taken from the Lifestream for forty years and there was a lot of damage to be repaired.

Slowly, the dust cloud thinned and disappeared, settling to the ground once again. Little shoots from hibernating bulbs and seeds peeked hopefully forth, nudged by the Lifestream into germination.

Those shoots grew taller, thicker and reached for the sun as their ancestors had done and they reproduced. Barren wastelands started to become lush with foliage and small fauna were brought forth by the Lifestream and helped the flora further. 

Bees, butterflies, birds and the like started to move pollen around and what was once dead and seemingly hopeless now fair teemed with life and promise. Chocobos were the first of the larger fauna to return and they ran free across the grasslands.

The woman consulted with the man, they had travelled for centuries together, meeting and conversing with so many souls who remained in limbo in the Lifestream and a decision was reached.

They could not hold on much longer - and the power of Holy was waning having been expended for so long. They could no longer control this level of concentration without a respite and some beings in the Lifestream had started to degrade. They knew this degradation was seeping into the Lifestream from the Northern Crater as the mako-encased Sephiroth's power waxed. Holy wobbled and the woman felt the moment those encased in its protective charm began to be at risk and she felt an insidious presence near to them starting to flex and probe.

The crystals of Holy got swept in to the Lifestream and the woman and the man looked upon their friends and sent them up in a fountain of Lifestream where once, a church had stood. The egg-shaped crystals were held aloft by the Lifestream, which solidified into a tree-like shape and held them up ten feet from the ground. They would be released when the Planet needed it's warriors.

The woman manipulated the Lifestream and drew on the man's strength to aid her and she plugged the fountain by a small jagged oblong. It was white like Holy, but inside was encased hope; its power would grow over time and connection. They just hoped there would be enough.

As for the rest of humanity - it was a little early - but they had to either release their grip or risk lives slipping through their fingers.

They let go.

\---

Reno awoke, feeling confused. He seemed to have passed out somewhere uncomfortable and damp. He sneezed and opened his eyes and got up, realising he had been out on a patch of dewy grass.

There were others around him that were also waking up and looking around in confusion. Then he felt ill as he remembered - he had died. _Everyone_ had - Meteor had come.

Was this the afterlife?

He was not sure, he started to remember floating for an indeterminate amount of time in a sea of green vapour. He did not recall it all, he had floated through his own mind and he had dreamed, possibly hallucinated - but it had been mostly peaceful. He had a vague memory of seeing a face he recognised, but the memory was fuzzed. 

As he shook the fog from his mind, he looked up and he saw Rude laying inert on the floor a few feet away and hurried over to his friend and helped him up as he awoke.

"Rude!" His voice was thick and it felt odd to speak, but he needed to know Rude was all right.

"Mmm." Rude said, rubbing his eyes and looking at Reno and they both knew they were as happy as each other that their best friend was seemingly safe.

"Where th' fuck are we?" Reno asked, looking around at the seemingly endless green around him, peppered with trees, bushes and the ground was blanketed with yellow flowers.

"I don't know." Rude replied and Reno felt compelled to head in a specific direction so he followed his feet to where they wanted to take him. Rude followed, taking it all in silently.

"We were dead, weren' we?" Reno asked quietly and Rude nodded and then a few feet further on, they saw Tseng and Elena getting to their feet and they hurried over and pushed their way past unknowns until they reached their little family.

"Tseng! 'Lena!" Reno called out and they looked over, surprised but definitely pleased to see the pair.

"You are alive." Tseng noted pointlessly but they knew he was pleased and Elena flung herself on them both and hugged them before regaining her composure and letting go, Reno patting her back comfortingly as she clung to them.

"Apparently. Where's the Pres?" Reno asked, looking around. They were all still clad in their black suits, but no one in white could be seen nearby.

"Unknown." Tseng replied, also looking around. He reached instinctively towards his PHS pocket, seemed to realise it was not there and his hand hung limply at his side.

"What do we do, Boss?" Elena asked, but Tseng did not reply as a terrified cry came from the direction Reno and Rude had been heading in originally.

"What in Ifrit's flaming arse is that goo? Gross!" Someone called out, sounding entirely grossed out by something.

"Is that _Rufus Shin-Ra_ under that thing?" Someone else called and the four Turks looked at one another and then, as one, broke into sprints and raced towards the kerfuffle.

They got to the site and saw a huge crystalline tree that looked like it was made of solidified Lifestream and it held three shimmering white egg-shaped capsules that glimmered oddly. That was quite something, but the white smudge at the bottom had them running towards it and warding people away.

They found Rufus Shin-Ra on the floor and as the fastest Turk, Reno got to him first. He pulled him up from the grass and rested Rufus against him gently yet securely and checked him over quickly. He had a pulse and he was breathing and as the others got near, his eyes fluttered open and Reno bit back a sigh of relief.

Tseng dropped to his knees in front of the President and Rude and Elena helped shield him from view.

"Oh, _Shiva_ I think this guy is dead!" Someone exclaimed a few feet away from them and they looked over to see a man laying prone on the floor, some horrible black ooze coming out of him. The flowers and grass the ooze touched withered and died and soon, the corpse dissolved into green lights and he re-joined the Lifestream again.

As Rufus regained consciousness in Reno's arms and Tseng checked him over discreetly, others were found dead and oozing like the first corpse and still more others were found to have black-and-grey mottled smudges on them that also oozed.

"Tseng? Reno?" Rufus asked, a little sluggishly and Reno squeezed his arm gently in response but let Tseng do the talking.

"We're all here, Sir."

"I thought you were all dead." Rufus slurred.

"We might well have been, Sir." Tseng replied calmly as he turned over his President's wrists and finished checking him over - there was a black and grey smudge on his wrist. Reno was unsure how he managed to do that unflappable thing, but then, that was why he was the Director. "Many citizens have just come to here, together."

"Lifestream?" Rufus slurred again but he passed out before they were able to tell him that he seemed to have the condition that some of those dying and dead had.

"What d'we do now?" Reno asked Tseng worriedly.

"We ensure his safety as Priority One. Secondly, we find any one that can help us - Elena."

"Sir."

"Find us a doctor."

"Sir." She was off in an instant.

"Rude."

"Sir."

"We need to find a shelter - or build one - and we need to find something to carry him on."

"Sir." Rude was off looking the next instant, though it did not seem like anything man-made was around here.

"Reno, I'll stay with him. You find out what you can. Report back to me in two hours." Reno carefully handed Rufus' limp and slumbering form to Tseng's custody, Rufus wincing in pain as they moved him despite their care. He took a few steps away, turned to say something and whatever comment he had intended to make disappeared from his mind as his eyes fully took in the egg-shaped crystals.

"Boss? I got summ'it to report."

"Yes?" Tseng asked, confused as to what it could be, but Reno simply pointed up. Tseng's eyes were dragged up and at this short distance and with their minds not focused elsewhere, he could see what Reno had.

In the left hand crystal were the figures of Cid Highwind, Vincent Valentine and Cait Sith. In the right hand crystal were Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon and Barret Wallace and in the centre crystal was Yuffie Kisaragi and just to the ninja's side was Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart, holding hands. The expressions on their faces were grim resignation, but a peaceful one nonetheless.

"AVALANCHE." Tseng breathed in disbelief at what his eyes were taking in.

\---

**Five years later...**

"Reno." Tseng joined the younger Turk who was on his usual nightly routine of looking over the Lifestream and Crystal Tree, looking grave as Reno turned to face him. The rain was falling down and through the porous roof of the Dome Meadow they had built to protect this place.

"Yeah?"

"Reeve will be visiting in ten day's time to meet with the President. He wants to discuss the plans for the new solar panels to be fitted into the Kalm Town Hall."

"What do I gotta do?" Reno sighed. He did not mind Reeve, the man was pretty inoffensive and was very efficient, it was just that he bored Reno out of his mind. Reeve detail was usually not given to him for that very reason, a bored Reno was a liability.

"The President would like you to attend him during the visit."

"Gotcha. So why'd ya _really _come out here. Ya could'a just called." Tseng's eye twitched slightly in annoyance, he did not like it when Reno was perceptive like this - or rather- when he _let on_ that he was being perceptive. Perception was a vital part of a Turks' job description. Or, it had been before Meteor.__

__"I needed some air." Tseng said evasively._ _

__"Sure." Reno replied and turned to look back at the tree._ _

__"You still come here every night?" Tseng asked and Reno shrugged._ _

__"Guess its become a habit." He mused, not noticing Tseng's expression as the man was behind him._ _

__"I see. I expect you in at 7 sharp." He said and walked off, leaving Reno to his silent and solo contemplations._ _

__After they had built some rudimentary shelters for the first night, focus had quickly shifted to how people would eat, where they would live and so on and so forth. Rufus had been exhausted, but had put forth ideas._ _

__Many had disagreed with him, some on the detail and others simply on principle. The second day they had all been here and scouts had reported that they were in a huge crater with more vegetation beyond - like the Grasslands had overtaken The Wastes of old. Some people had decided to break away from anything even remotely involved with Shin-Ra and had gone over the rim and out of the crater they had determined to be what was left of the once-mighty Midgar._ _

__One group had headed out to the former region of Kalm and settled there, felling timber and building homesteads with it and starting to domesticate some of the local fauna. Another group, which had included Reeve Tuesti, had gone towards the location Junon had once sat at and found that the city was broken and rusted but not entirely obliterated. They had salvaged what they could and built there and formed the World Regenesis Organisation._ _

__A huge number, though, had chosen to remain in the Midgar Crater. Seeing Rufus trying - and helping - those around him had endeared him to some. The fact he had the disease that they had started to call Geostigma had softened others. Some simply believed he was doing good - he had tried to defend Midgar after all with the Sister Ray - and the rest just wanted a figurehead they recognised as some form of ballast in their new and frightening reality._ _

__Whatever the motives, many remained in the crater and Rufus directed his Turks to oversee groups and they diverted a water way to the main area for settlement to provide water both for the necessities of life and to generate power. Architects and former Shin-Ra Urban Planning staff sat with him for long hours drawing up plans and many worked on building homes, shops and making necessary materials._ _

__Within six months, the beginnings of Neo Midgar were laid. Rufus had issued an edict that as little of nature was to be disrupted as possible as the Lifestream had sustained them; so they could no longer use mako energy or harm nature without real necessity. Some had wanted to build another steel city but they were in the minority and most shied away from anything resembling their old lives in fear of a second cataclysmic event._ _

__Most still in the crater who were helping build their new lives firmly associated the disaster with the late President as Rufus had not been President long enough to have really caused the issue in the first place. Word had circulated that the once-revered war hero Sephiroth had been the one to summon Meteor to Gaia as the Lifestream had imparted that knowledge to them - and Sephiroth had been lost many years before Rufus had taken on the mantle of President - and Sephiroth had killed the old President himself. (Or, a failed clone had, but the general populace were not cognizant of that detail)._ _

__People still died from geostigma and they discovered that the ground still died temporarily where they oozed or fell, but the yellow flowers got replaced by purple ones in those patches. The purple flowers were dotted all around Neo Midgar. At first they had been hated, seen as a symbol and symptom of the disease, but Rufus had proclaimed them beautiful in their own way. Life was springing again from death as they all had._ _

__Every structure had a roof garden and wind turbines had been built. The fledgling city was a beautiful panorama of smooth lines, sweeping white and wooden structures with greenery in every available space. The new Shin-Ra Company Headquarters was built just to the side of a huge dome constructed and left as a meadow which helped protect AVALANCHE in their crystal tree and Rufus and his Turks all had a personal domiciliary area within with a floor for guest rooms._ _

__Those of Cosmo Canyon had come and helped brainstorm and Rufus had agreed to the planting of parks and green walkways wherever a road needed to be laid. They avoided anything non porous where possible to allow the rains to get through and Neo Midgar was beautiful - and clean - in a way Midgar could never have been. The Cosmo Canyon folk had taught them about the science of the Planet and the basics of horticulture so that their new city with nature did not wither and die in inept hands._ _

__Reno had to admit he missed Wall Market's pubs, though._ _

__They had worked on a design to trap and convert energy from the sun and had started fitting the prototypes, which was what was prompting Reeve to visit this time. The banks and all their stored data had all vanished and Rufus had issued out a system of Gil-Credits to keep their little community afloat and firmly anchored to the newly restarted Shin-Ra Electric Power Company. The citizens of Neo Midgar had taken to it easily and with remembered knowledge of systems, they soon had computers and PHS networks built to sustain their system. Minerals and metals were plenty in the crater, having been smashed to small pieces by Meteor but repurposed for taller stable buildings as girders and pillars and to be used in creating power lines, PHSs and the like._ _

__Reno had been amazed at how quickly two or three rudimentary shelters had become a fledgling city, but both the determination and need that they had begun with had morphed into a desire for comfort once they knew it was long-term. There was even a small pleasure district, that they officially named New Wall (though everyone called it Newall), but Rufus ensured it stayed relatively clean and the Turks quickly clamped down on any illegality therein. No one wanted a new Corneo.._ _

__Reno and Rude had even helped build the new orphanage and, to his unceasing shock, he had befriended a few of the mites. He felt a kinship with many of them, having been left an orphan at twelve himself (murdering your father did that; Reno still maintained he deserved it) and they had appreciated the Turks' help. They were still not exactly heroes, but people no longer got frightened when they recognised one of them as a Turk - unless they had reason to fear._ _

__A woman named Ms. Folia had taken on the role of matron and named it the New Leaf House after an orphanage she had worked at in the old Five slums. Reno and Rude had both thought it a good name. This was a new leaf - for all of them. Building orphanages and befriending urchins would not have been on his mind in his other services as a Turk before, but now - he knew he would never be asked to commit mass murder for propaganda's sake in aid of a trio of ruthless warmongers again. He still did as necessary and the Turks had been obliged to quietly eliminate a few agitators over the past five years, but overall there was a lot less shady goings-on for the foursome._ _

__This was better. _He_ was better._ _

__"I can't figure out if I wan' ya arseholes wakin' up or not." He sighed as he looked on the tree, eyes lingering on the entwined hands of Lockhart and Strife as they often were, he just did not know why. "Ya was always a huge pain in m' arse, but I guess ya all did what needed ta be done. The world as we knew it was oblitera'ed, yo. _We_ was the obliterators. How'm I supposed to atone fer that shit?"_ _

__There was no answer from the crystallised heroes._ _

__There never was._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to keep up with updates etc., you can follow me on pillowfort here: https://www.pillowfort.social/epistretes or join the discord here: https://discord.gg/BDPbPnZ


	2. Broken eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Geostigma. A disease left, we have reason to believe, by being in the Lifestream for many centuries. There is no cure, I will likely perish within the year." He stated simply as if not just stating baldly that he was seeing the end of his life so soon; but his Turks all looked at the ground, clearly saddened by this knowledge and hating the inevitability of it. "There are many others with it, also. We do not know why some are affected and not others."

A week after Tseng had joined Reno at the Crystal Tree, he was there on one of his usual nightly prowls and was snapped from his silent reverie - mostly wondering why the fuck he kept coming back here - by a slight cracking sound from above his head.

He looked up sharply and saw a small break in the crystal holding Kisaragi, Strife and Lockhart as little flakes of shimmering white drifted to the ground from the split.

"Oh, shit." He snapped up his PHS and called Rufus directly.

"Yes?" the Shin-Ra President asked, voice calm but Reno knew he would be displeased to be bothered at this time of night - since his geostigma had progressed he had begun retiring earlier and earlier.

"Boss - the fuckin' eggs are breakin'." Reno stated, a swoop of something in his gut he could not tell was fear or excitement - maybe both - as another small crack sounded and appeared on another crystal; this time the one encasing Cid Highwind et al.

"What do you mean, Reno?"

"The crystal egg fuckin' things AVALANCHE are in are _fuckin' crackin' open_!" He yelled into the receiver and Rufus fell quiet for a moment.

"We will be there immediately. Tseng, I-" the PHS clicked off as Rufus called to Tseng who was on duty tonight.

Reno looked back up and took a few steps back and looked up at the little web of tiny cracks that were appearing and spidering across the crystals which were shedding more flakes of that shimmering material as he watched.

Nearly ten minutes passed as he stood and watched, guarding both the crystals and anyone that might stumble in here and be at risk - luckily not many people came in here at night knowing he haunted the place. Then, as the crystals looked like they would fully crumble, they shattered as light streamed from them and up into the sky in a huge column of white and yellow light and the crystallised Lifestream holding the crystal structures up splintered and fell.

Reno stepped back but did not reach for his weapon, he knew if he did he risked being attacked if AVALANCHE were restored and saw him ready for a fight. The light cleared and they were indeed standing there, looking hale and hearty and very confused.

"What happened?" Yuffie found her voice first.

"I don't know." Tifa responded and Reno cleared his throat.

"You don' know? You was ah...well, trapped in some crystal things. They jus' cracked." Eight heads snapped over to where he stood and through his trepidation, he heard Rufus and the others entering the area. They really needed to sort out that new squeak on Rufus' wheelchair.

"An' what the hell are _you_ doin' here?!" Barret yelled and brought his weapon, Missing Score, to bear.

"Guard duty." Reno responded, holding his hands up so they could see he was not holding his weapon. 

"Like I'm s'posed ta believe that." Barret scoffed.

"D'ya _always_ have conversations with ya weapon out?" Reno scoffed as Rufus drew level.

"Reno, do not antagonise them, they have just awakened." Rufus chided and Reno's jaw clenched in annoyance. He had never much liked the big gunner and he was feeling very odd feelings about AVALANCHE being free again - what could it mean for them all?

"Rufus Shin-Ra. I thought you were dead. We saw Diamond Weapon hit the Shin-Ra Building." Cloud stated, stepping forward. He did not have his hand on his weapon but it was close, just in case.

"I was. All of us were. I will be happy to explain what has happened while you have been out." Rufus offered.

"I ain't believin' no Shin-Ra bullshit never again." Barret snarled.

"Barret..." Tifa chided, going in to what they had noticed while observing this group was her 'Mum mode' when she reasoned with and soothed the others around her. "We can make up our own minds but only if we listen first. I felt...I think I felt Aerith at that last moment. Something has happened, I think she did something."

"Indeed. We can discuss it here if you prefer but this _is_ a public arena, despite the hour. We could retire to-"

"Tell us here." Cid piped up, glowering at Rufus. He had never forgiven the man over the Tiny Bronco incident.

"Very well." Rufus adjusted himself in his chair and looked at Cloud as the leader of the group. "Sephiroth was not stopped. Meteor hit and wiped out all life on Gaia. We all found ourselves in the Lifestream where we were given a choice, to merge with it and move on - or to be maintained until such time as the world could sustain humans again."

"Sounds like bullshit." Cid muttered, stepping closer to Barret.

"Would that it were. I have nothing to hide from you at this point." Rufus stated flatly.

"Says the man with a blanket over 'is head." Cid scoffed, Barret nodding but they stopped when Rufus pulled the blanket off of his head and showed his bandaged eye beneath it. There was some sort of dark stain on the white bandage and then he lifted his hand and they saw that was also bandaged and oozing.

"I can keep it off if you prefer, but most here do not like the sight of geostigma." He offered much more placidly than the others expected.

"Where are we?" Tifa asked, she had dislike written all over her face, but she wanted to have answers and it seemed that she was more willing to listen than some of her peers.

"I believe this was once the site of a certain church." Rufus told her and she bowed her head, as did Strife and he directed his words towards the Wutai heir. "Midgar was obliterated and we now sit in Neo Midgar - a city we have constructed within the crater left by Meteor. Your comrade, Reeve Tuesti, is in Junon and some others have relocated to Kalm and built a farming community there. Wutai was also restored."

"This does not resemble Midgar." Vincent noted, gesturing to the lush grasses and flowers at their feet.

"No, we received aid from the Cosmo Canyon commune on how to build in and around nature. We run on water, solar and wind energies now." Rufus told them.

"Just how long has it been?" Yuffie asked, relieved at the news of Wutai, but picking up on the subtext.

"We believe that the Planet needed around five-hundred years to be able to support life again after Meteor judging by the trees we had to fell and it has been five years since we all here awoke - and found you here encased in the crystals. Reno - the pictures."

Reno pulled out his PHS, flicked to an album of pictures they had taken of the crystals and handed it to Tifa as she was the closest to him. She took the device and looked at the images taken of them, unable to be seen from distance due to the opacity of the crystals, but up close they could see themselves suspended within.

"Uh, don' swipe no further." Reno suggested and Tifa looked at him quizzically, then cottoned on and flushed.

"On your _work_ PHS, Reno?" Tseng sighed.

"What? I ain't got no other PHS, yeah?" He shrugged, then took the device and quickly deleted a few pictures. Tifa went very red (and Yuffie giggled) when she accidentally caught sight of a shapely leg in one of the ones he deleted quickly and then handed it back.

AVALANCHE took turns looking at the images and then handed the PHS back, looking like they were starting to believe.

"It is late and I am weary. We have domiciliary areas in the building over there, we can resume this discussion in the morning." Rufus suggested. "It is a lot to take in so quickly and there is more to tell."

"I'd rather not stay in a Shin-Ra building." Cid shrugged "But I will if I ain't got no other choice."

"You are free to find other locations, I will foot the bill as you have no Gil-Credits between you." Rufus offered. "There is an inn nearby, though they are expecting a pre-booked delegation from Junon tomorrow - Reeve is of that party."

"Barret, its fine." Cloud stated, after looking hard at Rufus. "If Rufus tells us properly what that is on his hand."

"Geostigma. A disease left, we have reason to believe, by being in the Lifestream for many centuries. There is no cure, I will likely perish within the year." He stated simply as if not just stating baldly that he was seeing the end of his life so soon; but his Turks all looked at the ground, clearly saddened by this knowledge and hating the inevitability of it. "There are many others with it, also. We do not know why some are affected and not others."

"Some people disappeared in the Lifestream, yo. Moved on or whatever." Reno added.

"Yes, we believe the geostigma may be connected to this phenomenon, but as it is it is just conjecture, we simply do not know for sure." Tseng added as he knew Rufus did not like discussing geostigma.

"Is my Marlene here?" Barret asked, urgently as he realised she might be with Reeve - and also that she may have been one of those who moved on, or one of those with geostigma.

"She's in the local orphanage." Rude assured him. "She is safe, does not have the stigma."

"She'll be happy to see you are all awake. She visits the Meadow often." Elena added and it seemed like it felt as odd to AVALANCHE to hear Rufus and the Turks being friendly and informative as it did for them to be so. Time had changed, however - and so had they.

"Its been five years, yo. She's ten, just 'ad her birthday." Reno piped up and he saw Barret look delighted but also like he had taken a gut punch and Tifa's eyes filled with tears. He felt awkward and fished a handkerchief out of his suit pocket and handed it to her wordlessly. She looked at him in shock, but accepted it and dabbed her eyes. As she made to hand it back, he waved it off. "Keep i', you migh' need it more'n me."

"I think we should accept the hospitality for the night and learn more on the morrow, I am also weary." Nanaki decided and the others agreed with him. It was an awkward, quiet and sombre walk to the new Shin-Ra headquarters, but they entered and headed up to the domestic area. 

"I will bid you goodnight." Rufus said and Tseng wheeled him to the private elevator and to his own suite. Reno and Rude headed to the guest rooms and made them up quickly as Elena watched over AVALANCHE and fetched iced waters and made sandwiches for those who were hungry.

"Why are you doing all this?" Yuffie asked.

"President Shin-Ra would want us to make you welcome." Elena stated simply. "Plus, I'm the best at sandwiches and Reno is, surprisingly, the best at making up the guest rooms."

"Reno?" Yuffie snorted. "Yeah, right."

"He is unexpectedly tidy." Elena shrugged and handed over the plates. "When he wants to be. Just don't ever expect anything other than a disaster if you put him in the kitchen. Rude's a pretty good cook, though. He makes a mean stew."

"That he does." Reno agreed, coming back in to the room with Rude right behind him. "You ain't made yer three-milly stew in ages, man."

"Apologies." Rude said simply, but they all surmised the man would be making it again soon by the look on the redhead's face.

"Well, there're four rooms to split between ya. Do it however ya want." He waved a hand and snagged a plate of sandwiches from Elena, sitting on the sofa with the AVALANCHE girls and started to eat as Tseng re-entered.

"The President has requested that we take you to the orphanage in the morning to see your daughter. However, I suggest a debrief first - at 8am?" He suggested and the group nodded.

"I wanna see her."

"She will be asleep now and it will be better that you have the full picture before we do anything else in case it becomes a factor." Tseng replied coolly. "She will be done with breakfast around nine."

"We should rest." Vincent deemed and the others nodded, Barret seeing the logic but still not much liking it.

"Rude, Elena, return here for 7.30am. Reno, take first watch. I will take second." Tseng divvied up the duties with his group and the two given the night off did not need telling twice and they headed for their own rooms a floor above. Tseng looked over the room once more and then followed them.

"I ain't just lettin' a Turk loose while we all sleep." Barret pointed out.

"We can take watches as well." Cloud reminded him.

"I'm beat, forget me doing it." Yuffie jumped up and walked off towards the corridor and went into the first room of the four on this floor after shouting back at them. " _Any_ of you but Tifa follow me and you'll get my shuriken up your butts."

"She sleeps like a starfish. I'll take first watch, I won't get any sleep anyway." Tifa sighed and reached for the uneaten part of Yuffie's sandwich. Cloud nodded and headed for the second room, Nanaki padded after him.

"I will sleep on the floor. I will be comfortable enough." He told his companion. Cloud still occasionally flailed in his sleep if he had a bad night, so this was the best option.

"I will take second watch." Vincent stated and then he and Cid just nodded at one another and went off to the third room, the men usually ended up sharing a watch or a tent together and they got along well. 

Barret glared at Reno for good measure after looking at Tifa to be sure she was okay with first watch and then followed his friends and took the fourth room. No one ever wanted to share with Barret due to his snoring. Cait Sith went into the corner and went into low power mode.

Reno finished his pilfered sandwich and flopped back comfortably on the sofa with his PHS and started to flick idly through it, figuring now was as good as any time to delete anything Tseng might now find as he was sure a request to check his device would be forthcoming. He pretended to ignore the Lockhart woman as he did so, though knowing he was alone on a floor with the remaining members of AVALANCHE was making him a little uneasy. This woman alone could handily beat his arse into next week if he upset her in any way and he was not exactly renowned for being a tactful peacemaker.

He was not sure if it helped or not that she certainly improved the view in the room. The room was tastefully decorated and had clean lines, though it was nothing compared to the old Shin-Ra Building for opulence. Even someone who cared little for details like how specific fixtures could help the aesthetics of a room like himself - all he needed was a comfy sofa and a fridge stocked with beers and cold pizza - could see that despite its more rustic nature, it was more elegant. Still, Tifa Lockhart was definitely a woman well worth looking at. He remembered Rude had once borne a raging crush on the woman sharing the sofa with him right now and he wondered if he still did. They had not discussed such a trivial subject in a long time now.

He kind of missed it.

He was hyper-aware of every movement she made as she washed down the peppered egg and cress sandwich with some chilled water and he tore his eyes away from her before she noticed as he watched her throat move as she swallowed. What was he even doing?

She set the glass down with a soft _clink_ and settled back with more refinement than he had against the back of the sofa. 

"Want me to move so ya can stretch out?" He asked, peering at her over his PHS. There were two other sofas in the room not being used right now.

"Only if you want to. I have room." She replied. "Though I probably should not get too comfortable."

"Yeah." He agreed, deleting the last dodgy photo and text on his device and he tossed it on the seat between them. "There's a little number game thing on there if ya want somethin' ta do. No' as fancy as the old models but it'll do."

"No, but thank you." Silence fell between them again, but it was not exactly a comfortable one. Too many fights and taunts (mostly from him) had passed between them for this to be anything resembling comfortable and after a few interminably long and awkward minutes, she spoke again and asked. "What happened here?"

"In what sense?" He asked, flicking his eyes over to her.

"I remember seeing Aerith's spell - Holy - come out and try to stop Meteor. We all knew we had failed to stop it and resigned ourselves to death and a moment before I saw you in that meadow, I thought I saw her face in the sky."

"Ah, the big overarchin' 'what happened' question." He leaned forward and clasped his hands between his knees. "T'be honest, I don' really know. Rufus talks to the scientists and W.R.O. more'n me, but I guess...well, we was all in Midgar. The Turks, that is. We took a sector each and were evacuatin' but we looked up and saw it weren't gonna stop. Nex' thing I know the white light is gone and all I see is green. I remember...things. Snatches of things, but nothing major."

"You were in the Lifestream?" She asked, kindly.

"I guess I were. I don' remember much in there. There was a chance to move deeper bu' I didn'. I think I was lookin' for Rude. Didn' wanna go nowhere without him." He pulled his left hand up and scratched the back of his head.

"I've been in the Lifestream." She told him and he looked up at her curiously. "Not like you were, I fell in literally in Mideel."

"I heard it got turned into a lake." He agreed. "You fell in?"

"Yeah, I didn't get away quick enough. Cloud and I fell in together. It was a strange place but I guess I managed to keep my mind intact. Or, someone there did for me."

"Well, I guess we were in there over five hundre' years, but then I woke up in a field of yellow flowers. Found Rude, then we found Tseng and Elena and then we foun' Rufus. He were unconscious still - but he was under the crystal thing you were all in. Asleep at the base of it."

"Seems odd for that to be a coincidence." She mused.

"Yeah. I guess I..." he trailed off, feeling odd. They had never sat and had a conversation like this before and though he rarely shut up for two minutes together, it was usually just noise and nonsense. This was putting him out of his comfort zone.

"Yes?" She prompted.

"I guess I half hoped you lot'd never wake up." He admitted, lifting his chin a little in defiance in case she took offense, but she just gave him a small, wry smile.

"I don't blame you." That was not the response he expected.

"Why?"

"I can't help feeling like there is a reason for all of this. Us waking up now, Rufus being found at the base of the crystal tree - _you_ being the one to be there when we woke." She picked at a cuticle. "None of this can be a coincidence."

"I just can' help but feel like serious shit gonna go down now you're all back." He shrugged. "More people're dyin' of the stigma and we ain't got no cure or idea of what ta do wit' it."

"And you fear for Rufus?" She asked and he caught her eye and looked away, then nodded once.

"I...yeah. I know ya lot don' like 'im, but he's family. We all are." Reno told her. "Plus, there'll be a power vacuum when 'e goes and it won' be pretty."

"You think someone would try to divide people?" She asked.

"People's already divided, yo. Those at Kalm left because they wan'ed nothin' to do with Shin-Ra. They been tryin' to inflate their prices lately so we've had to build farms here, too. Those at the W. R. O.'ll work with us but they'd rather not. The people that stayed here stayed coz they chose to - but Rufus' the one holdin' 'em all together. Without no heir - and one got now'd be too young anyway..."

"I see." Tifa mused, the words touching her quite a lot - she did not like Rufus; but she also did not want to awaken like this only to find the world being plunged into some sort of political spat or even a war because people were vying for power. Rufus was at least a known quantity.

"Bit of a shit-show all round, yeah?" He sighed and then pushed off of the sofa after rubbing his tired eyes. "I need a coffee, you wan' one?"

"Sure." She got up and followed him into the kitchen area. She could see it from the sofa, but moving around would help her stay awake and she was curious to know a bit more about him. She had always thought him attractive physically, even in her determination and later grief over the plate, she had been able to see that for herself. There had been a swagger to him, he had helped commit a horrific crime and enabled many of her loved ones and fellow Seven dwellers she had known to be killed all for a directive from a now-dead megalomaniac; but there had been something _else_ , too.

Perhaps it was the way he had reacted, how his face had crumpled in grief when Rude had been seemingly killed for that brief moment in the pillar? Perhaps it had been outside Gongaga when they had overheard the Turks discussing, of all things, whom they were crushing on. That had definitely humanised them in her mind and made her feel bad when they had then subsequently fought and she had punched him square in the solar plexus and winded him.

Perhaps it had been in Wutai when they had seen them in their down time at the Turtles' Paradise - or perhaps it had been when they briefly joined forces to save Elena and Yuffie from the odious Don Corneo? She had seen Reno knock the man off of Da Chao and yet - it had been the right choice at the time as even delaying by taking him into custody would have risked him killing the girls as a desperate last-ditch attempt at escape.

Perhaps it had even been under Midgar when they had run into the trio in Sector Eight and Reno had expressed a desire not to fight and to just walk away from one another?

Perhaps it had been a combination of all of these things?

"Need help?" She asked him and he could not close off his surprise at her offer quick enough and it flashed across his face, interestingly adorned with those tattoos.

"Sure. You like it milky? Its in the fridge." He said as he plugged the kettle in to the mains and it started to heat.

"Thanks, but I usually drink it black with no sugar." 

"Oh? Me too, 'cept I dump _loads_ of sugar in, yo." He replied, raising a cheeky eyebrow.

"Explains your hyper energy." She joked, surprised at herself for feeling comfortable enough to do so and he gave her a little lopsided smirk that was a lot better than the ones he had given her before when they had been on opposite sides.

He moved around the kitchen easily and got the grinds and poured a tiny bit of chilled water over them to let them dissolve before he added the hot water. He added less sugar to his than she was expecting and figured he had been half-joking before.

"You flick it off before it boils, too?" She asked, interested.

"Yeah, this and the cold water stops it burnin'." He shrugged. "Elena always forgets - burns the beans and it taste horrid, yeah? Never accept a coffee from her. She can't tell coz she makes it really milky with sugar, covers the burned taste."

"I thought she said you were a disaster in the kitchen?" He leaned in close and handed her a steaming mug of coffee and murmured in her ear in a sensual tone that made _something_ in her purr and she accepted the mug to cover the moment.

"Keep tha' between us, yeah? I just don' like cookin' so I burned a load of shit so they'd stop askin' me ta do it."

"Somehow, I completely believe that." She chuckled and they made their way back to the sofas and resumed their previous seats, setting their drinks down to cool.

"What is life like here now?" She asked, it had been playing on her mind and she felt a little more at ease talking to the fiery redhead.

"Some things are exactly the same, others totally differen'." He shrugged. "Still gotta get up an' go ta work. Still gotta pay taxes, still followin' orders...but the orders're different. Buildin' shit, overseein' material imports and ensurin' everyone gets a fair crack at it. Rude an' I helped build that orphanage...stuff like that. People're happier, I guess. Mostly. They remember what they lost, but as time passes I guess they're gettin' used to it."

There was no reply and he looked up to see Tifa had her eyes closed and that delectable chest of hers was rising and falling rhythmically, she had fallen asleep and she looked peaceful. He found he did not have the heart to wake her and instead, he got up quietly and padded in to the hallway and fished out a blanket and laid it over her slumbering form and he tucked her in carefully.

"What are you doing?" Asked a voice from the hallway and he looked up and pressed a finger to his lips when he saw Vincent Valentine looking at him suspiciously, he could not see Tifa from that angle.

"She's asleep." Vincent nodded and moved around the sofa and saw for himself that it was entirely innocent and allowed it and Reno felt the urge to clarify. "She jus' dropped off five minutes ago. Thought I'd let 'er sleep."

"This hers?" The former Turk asked, gesturing to the untouched coffee.

"Yeah, you can have it if ya want." Reno said, yawning and sat down gently so as not to disturb her as Vincent helped himself and perched on the sofa opposite. Silence reigned for a long moment and then Vincent looked up, the coffee warming his hands nicely.

"Reno, I won-" his eyes fell on the redhead who had also fallen asleep, both of the slumbering figures on the sofa had feet twining in the middle and their heads pillowed on opposite ends and Vincent allowed himself a small smile. The elevator door opened quietly and Tseng stepped in to the room.

"I'm here to-"

"Shh." Vincent quieted him and the man looked over at the sofa and took in the scene. "They just fell asleep - I've been here."

"I see. He made coffee?"

"Yes, they must have realised they were tired but dropped off before drinking it."

"I may as well have his then." Tseng decided and went to the kitchen and added some creamer to his, Vincent joining him to allow the pair to rest.

"Tell me what has been happening." Tseng nodded and he started to fill the former Turk in on what they had been doing the past five years. They had time until dawn broke, after all.


	3. New Leaf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Marlene?" He gasped, taking her in - it was unmistakably her. She was almost half of her four-year old self taller again and she now had hair down her back in a ponytail reminiscent of both Aerith and Tifa - it was curled in front and loose with a pink bow tied as Aerith had worn her hair and it had another little pink tie at the bottom in the style Tifa wore. It was too specific to be anything other than a remembrance. She was wearing a pink knee length skirt with pockets and a white blouse with pink ribbon lining the edges with little white socks and black Mary Janes; she also had a stylised metal stick at her back. Barret took it all in in an instant, but unbelieving that this was his precious baby girl. As far as his mind knew, she had only been four years old the previous day.

Rude, Elena and Rufus joined Vincent and Tseng, Rude amused by seeing his friend asleep and tucked in a blanket on the sofa with Tifa Lockhart. Tseng and Vincent had taken pity on him and tucked him into the blanket as well - and he snapped a picture on his PHS for posterity and mocking purposes.

He had then gently woken him as they could hear noises emanating from the rooms AVALANCHE were occupying and the redhead swatted irritably at him before waking properly.

"Reno, wake up." Rude told him and he blinked his eyes open and took in the room, waking immediately when he saw the five assembled and looking at him and he looked over to see his legs tangled in with Lockhart's and he gently extricated himself so as not to wake her and stretched.

"You fell asleep on duty, luckily Vincent was on watch." Tseng told him, though there was a tiny amused curl at the side of his lip. "I drank your coffee."

"Musta dropped off before I had a chance to drink it," he mused and cracked the crick out of his neck, though the sofa had been a comfortable place to snooze. He then stood up moments before AVALANCHE poured in to the room and woke Tifa up.

"I wondered where you were." Yuffie chided, hands on hips.

"She slept in here rather than risk sharing with you." Vincent said, which might have been teasing but it was hard to tell with him sometimes. Tifa blinked tiredly at him, grateful for the save and snuggled the blanket in closer, though she was now sitting instead of laying on the sofa.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Yuffie rebutted.

"You are." Tifa replied and rubbed her tired eyes of any lingering sleep crust.

"Yeah, yeah - let's ge' on wit' it, I wanna go see my Marlene." Barret blustered and sat unknowingly in Reno's vacated spot beside Tifa.

"I'll make the coffees, who wants one?" Elena offered and Tifa glanced at Reno remembering what he had told her last night and then stood up, dropping the blanket on the sofa. She realised he must have tucked her in and it felt odd as they had always been other than friends, but she was grateful to him as well.

"I'll help." She stated and Reno turned his head to smirk out of the window, Rude and Cloud both catching the moment and wondering what it was about.

"Ooh, thanks." Elena enthused and the women went to the little kitchen as Rufus began to explain what had been going on, helped by Tseng and Vincent. Vincent chimed in whenever someone seemed disbelieving as he had now heard it before and he was more inclined to trust in the Turks. Shin-Ra of old had screwed him over, but the Turks faction had not - it had been the Research and Development Department's doing.

Tifa quickly set up the cups as Reno had the night before and dropped a splash of chilled water over the grinds to allow them to dissolve and she sent Elena on milk and sugar duty as she heated the water and added it to the grinds carefully.

They came back in with the trays, having heard the conversation and handed them out. Tifa saw the pleased look on the male Turks' and Rufus' faces as they got a good cup of coffee and she allowed herself to send an amused look at Reno as she handed him his mug.

A knock at the door clued them in to the arrival of breakfast and the delivery girl smiled at Rufus prettily as he signed off the cheque and she left, having brought them a variety of breakfast foods they all tucked into with gusto.

There were many questions from both sides but it seemed the sleep, the coffee and the food went a long way to the AVALANCHE crew being willing to listen. Barret had the most questions, grilling Rufus repeatedly about how they were powering the city and trying to catch him out in a lie.

"You should know that we have received reports of purple and black lights shooting into the sky at the Northern Crater the same time you emerged from the crystals." Tseng told them and Cloud looked pensive, the others all looking at the blond. They knew what that likely meant.

They then headed out of the Shin-Ra Headquarters and they saw the large, shimmering dome they had been in - where the Sector Five Slum Church had once stood. It was a large meadow within and Rufus pointed out the porous roof - which kept the bulk of the winds out of the meadow but allowed rainwater through to reach the plant life.

"We get some pretty strong winds in here now, they whip around the crater and sometimes tip over the rim." Tseng elaborated.

"It smells better." Nanaki pointed out, seemingly pleased to be in the Midgar area with grass underfoot. "The Planet feels stronger."

"It looks so much nicer - no steel sky, no scrap heaps." Tifa said, looking around and breathing in the clean air and she found herself catching Reno's eye as she looked around. "You'd never believe this was Midgar otherwise."

"What are ya building, Shin-Ra, you hidin' summit?" Barret demanded as he saw a large building being erected, the girders providing stability still exposed.

"Where do you suppose we house all these people? Tell them all to sleep in trees? No, I am not my father. I am capable of learning from others and implementing better strategy. That is going to be apartments for the last groups still living in shelters." Rufus said, sounding annoyed and weary; it was the first time he had behaved with any sense of irritation towards them since they had returned and Tifa guessed Barret was pushing his last nerve.

"Barret, leave it." She told the big man, who opened his mouth but saw the compressed line of her lips and closed it again.

The group were looking around as they made the five minute walk from the Dome Meadow towards the orphanage, taking in and commenting amongst themselves about the abundance of flora around and how the city managed to look sleek and aesthetically pleasing while also looking sustainable. There was no scent of mako on the air, there was hardly any traffic on the roads and most people who were moving things were doing so on the back of hand-drawn or chocobo-drawn carts. That was not to say that there were no mod cons, it was all just on a much smaller scale.

"Is the whole city like this?" Tifa turned and asked Rude and Reno, who were walking to her right.

"Mostly." Rude offered.

"Yeah, people really were scared at first of it all happenin' again and then I guess we all just got use'ta livin' like this." Reno added, Rude giving a small nod in agreement.

They reached the New Leaf House and Barret broke into a sprint as he saw the sign above it and realised his daughter would be inside. The AVALANCHE crew hurried after him, Tifa hot on his heels and the big man burst through the doors and called for her, falling silent as a ten year old girl turned and stood up, staring at him.

"Marlene?" He gasped, taking her in - it was unmistakably her. She was almost half of her four-year old self taller again and she now had hair down her back in a ponytail reminiscent of both Aerith and Tifa - it was curled in front and loose with a pink bow tied as Aerith had worn her hair and it had another little pink tie at the bottom in the style Tifa wore. It was too specific to be anything other than a remembrance. She was wearing a pink knee length skirt with pockets and a white blouse with pink ribbon lining the edges with little white socks and black Mary Janes; she also had a stylised metal stick at her back. Barret took it all in in an instant, but unbelieving that this was his precious baby girl. As far as his mind knew, she had only been four years old the previous day.

Right now, though her eyes were wide as she took in the sight and the next moment, she had flung herself, tears flowing from her eyes at her father, who scooped her up and held her tight, his gun arm pointed carefully away from her. 

It was a noisy reunion, hugs and tears all around for the Midgar-based AVALANCHE crew that Marlene had met and known. When she had finally let go of Barret and thrown herself at Tifa, the delighted tears running down the woman's face had caused a ripple amongst more than one of those present and watching.

Once everyone had calmed down and Tifa had used Reno's handkerchief to dab her tears away before re-pocketing it, they went into another room to talk and Marlene brought in a young man of twelve and introduced him as her best friend, Denzel. The boy had the marks of geostigma and Marlene had clean bandages stuffed into her pockets.

Marlene explained her own experience at seeing Meteor fall from the home in Kalm and that she had floated in the Lifestream and awoken near the location of the now Dome Meadow. She told them how she had been found by Rude as he had been gathering the children together and they had been brought to Rufus - who had been ordering his Turks to help unite any children with their parents or guardians if possible and then organised the building of this orphanage where she had resided to this day. Tifa - and many others - gave Rufus an appraising and thoughtful look at that revelation.

"I could feel you in that crystal, Daddy." She told him and he rubbed his eyes. "When I went there, I could feel that you were all alive. I knew you'd come back - you promised."

"I did promise. I'll always come back to you." Barret told her, tears of promise shining in his eyes. "As soon as I get somewhere to live, you're coming with me and we can be a fam'ly again."

Rufus' bandages started to seep a little a while later and Marlene noticed and stood up, grabbing the stick from her back and she spun the weapon in the same way Aerith had used to do with her own staves and an orb of green glimmered within and the pain on Rufus' face passed and the bandage stopped turning black.

"How..?" Barret asked and Marlene flicked a lock of hair back.

"Ms. Folia lets me help treat people when they are hurt." She explained, simply but sounding proud of herself.

"She's really good at it." Denzel added, also sounding proud - and grateful. "She helps me with my geostigma all the time."

"I can't cure it," she added "but it helps them with the pain."

"That is more impressive than the doctors we have consulted." Rufus told her, looking impressed.

"Stay away from me daugh'er, y'hear?" Barret grumbled.

"Daddy, I can help." She stated, replacing her weapon and putting her hands on her hips when she looked at him, determination in her steely gaze and he quailed a little; clearly proud but also still scared and protective.

"Hmph." He conceded and glared pointedly at Rufus but kept his other thoughts to himself.

They spent a few hours there and then they decided to head back to the suite as Marlene had lessons to attend and Barret wanted to sort some sort of abode out so he could reclaim his daughter, but until that was sorted she was better off where she was. He promised to visit again the next day and they headed out.

"Reeve just messaged that he should be at HQ within an hour." Tseng told them as they headed back up in the elevators. Rufus went to his rooms for a rest and a change of bandages before the Junon delegation's arrival.

The others split off, Rude tending to and guarding Rufus and Reno and Tseng went for a cat nap to make up for their shortened sleep the night before. Elena stayed with AVALANCHE and the delivery girl from the morning came back with lunch and seemed disappointed Rufus was not there this time.

Reeve arrived as they were putting their plates in the kitchen area and he was reunited with his friends and his old Cait Sith model.

Reeve confirmed the stories Rufus and the Turks had imparted, the few that had still been sceptical even in the face of what they had seen were willing to take Reeve's testimony at face value.

"I would like to return to Wutai." Yuffie determined after they had all caught up. "See my father. Even if he is a stupid old man."

"I can take you as far as Junon and you could get a ship from there either to Wutai or transport to Rocket Town. Shera has almost finished their airship." Reeve told her, which perked up Cid's ears.

"Shera's alive?" He asked.

"Oh yes. She has been working on restoring Rocket Town...though without the rocket." Reeve expanded. "All of the air vehicles had either been destroyed or had depreciated too far to be usable, so she has been building one there. I believe the estimated time to completion is a week or so now."

"Good work that girl." Cid sounded impressed and his companions shared a small smile amongst themselves.

"I would like to return to Cosmo Canyon." Nanaki determined "If the offer for passage is extended."

"Of course." Reeve agreed immediately. "Whomever wants to come with us can do so."

"I'd like to go see Corel, but Marlene's here - she is more important." Barret determined.

In the end, only Barret planned on staying in Neo Midgar and the others made plans to go with Reeve. Barret was interested in joining the W.R.O. faction here in Neo Midgar to help but also stay near his precious girl. Cait Sith was only partially working, so Reeve determined to take the bot with him and see if he could not fix him in Junon.

"I think it might be nice to see some of the new world." Tifa mused and Cloud nodded once in agreement. "Maybe start in Kalm and see this farming commune."

Reeve broke off to go and have his meeting with Rufus, Barret headed out looking for work so he could start gathering an income to sort out his new life with Marlene and Tifa went for a quick nap. Cloud went for a long walk, saying he wanted time alone to think and the others worked out their plans to travel home as Reeve planned to leave the next morning. They all knew there was a potential Sephiroth threat but they had no idea where he might be now and what his new plans might be. Assumptions could get them all killed.

Elena left them at dinner and was replaced by Rude, who maintained a quiet presence in the corner, AVALANCHE often forgetting he was even there as quiet and unassuming as he was as they tucked into the food laid on for them.

As the others headed for bed, Tifa found that her nap had been a bad idea as she was now not tired enough for sleep, so she told Rude she was going for a walk and she went out and let her feet guide her. She found herself going directly to the Dome Meadow and her steps gravitated towards the crumbled Crystal Tree. She realised there was already someone standing there - a familiar, redheaded someone.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone else would be here." She apologised when he turned as he heard her moving behind him.

"There usually isn't, yeah? I guess I still come by here outta habit." He admitted, scratching the back of his head as he turned to look at her.

"You came here a lot?" She asked, curious to know more about her once obstacle, now tentative ally.

"Yeah. I was on guard du'y more of'en than the others. I dunno why, but I..." He trailed off, deciding he did not want to share that. 

"We took shifts watchin' over ya all. Didn't know when - or if - ye'd ever wake up. Most people who come 'ere to the Meadow stayed away from the Crystal Tree. It scared 'em." A soft noise made him look up and he realised Tifa was crying. He froze, not knowing what to do and he was out of handkerchiefs to offer her, the last one had been a present from Elena for his last birthday. He had laughed at her and asked what in Ifrit's Hellfire he needed it for, but now he was grateful to her for giving it to him as Tifa pulled it out and dabbed her eyes and he could see the embroidered monogrammed initials Elena had sewn into it.

"This is _our_ fault. People are scared and it is because we failed." She castigated herself.

"Hey, nah it isn'. We was the ones who sent Sephiroth insane in the first place from wha' I hear." Reno told her, stepping forward and starting to reach out but then dropping his hand. He did not know why he lifted it and she would be unlikely to take any comfort from him anyway. Pointless.

"We fought so hard, we gave everything. _Aerith_ gave everything and we failed her." Neither of them were sure why this was pouring out of her now, perhaps she was just overwhelmed with the new reality that had been presented to her so quickly?

"Maybe the world ya all saved was this one?" He suggested and she looked up at him, surprised. "I mean, we dunno. Aerith summoned Holy didn' she? Only Cetra could do that from what Rufus tol' us. Maybe this was her plan?"

"Maybe..." She conceded the possibility and started to reign in control over her tears.

"I mean, this place looks and smells better'n Midgar, yeah?" He joked and she smiled wetly at him.

"Aerith would like this." She agreed, looking around the lush meadow - in the site where her little church patch had fought against the odds to grow and flourish. It reminded her a little of the flowerbeds at Aerith's old home on Petal Lane.

"Yeah. She would." Reno agreed, he remembered how she had been even the first time he had met the girl. He had not long been a Turk and she had been barely eight years old. She was still feisty even at that age and the first time he had met her, introduced to her by Tseng as a new recruit, she had been tending to a patch of flowers and she had narrowed her eyes at him in dislike due to the suit and the Shin-Ra affiliation. They had looked like these flowers, in fact.

"These flowers represent a reunion of lovers." Tifa said, having managed to get her tears fully under control now and Reno looked at them in mild surprise, he knew some people attributed meaning to flowers but he had not know that about these ones.

"She liked the joy they brought people. Oh, I should give this back to you." She reached her hand out and offered him the damp handkerchief back.

"Keep it."

"It is nice of you to offer, but my initials aren't R. S., after all." She smiled tiredly at him. "Plus this looks like a gift. A lady friend?"

"Well, she's a friend and a lady but she's not a 'lady friend'." He chuckled and took the square of cloth. "Elena gave it me fer my birthday. Not sure why."

"Maybe she is trying to make you more refined?" Tifa chuckled.

"She may as well give up, yeah?" He smirked back, going back to a more teasing and slightly flirty manner was easier for him to deal with than tears.

"What does the 'S' stand for?" She asked, realising she did not know.

"Sinclair. My mother's name." Reno explained, grateful when Tifa did not press as to why in their patriarchal society; though he was proud to bear the deceased woman's name, he had loved his mother dearly. He hardly wanted to explain that fact. Not even all the Turks had known even back when there had been fifteen of them and he had been brought into the fold as a skinny urchin by Ruluf.

"I should pro-" The woman started, but then she broke off and they looked at the remains of the crumbled Crystal Tree. The egg shaped capsules had flaked away to nothing when they had been released, but the tree-like structure holding them aloft had simply shattered and was laying on the ground as shimmering crystallised mako, though it did not appear to be materia in and of itself. They had left the shards, not knowing if it was a bad idea to touch them. Right now though, they were glimmering in the starlight as they shook and then a low rumble rolled through the ground at their feet.

"We should move." Reno said and Tifa nodded, but before they could make good their escape, a plume of sparkling water shot out of the ground in a fountain twice as tall as Reno and it fanned out at the top, spraying them with water and...

"Lifestream?" Tifa asked, incredulously as it fell and they saw the green substance mingled with the clear water.

"Wait..." Reno pointed at a spinning _something_ that had spurted out of the plume and was reaching its zenith and then it started to fall. Tifa crouched and then used her powerful leg muscles to propel herself in the air and she caught the thing in hand and landed, opening her hand and the pair of them saw a jagged oblong of crystal that was an opaque white.

"This is the same stuff you lot were in." Reno told her. "It must have formed a plug..."

"Yeah." Tifa agreed, turning it over and trying to see what was within, there were two darker smudges that hinted something was encased in this as they had been. The water still sprayed into the air like a geyser and the flowers around seemed to grow stronger before their eyes.

"What is it?" He asked and she shrugged and held it out for him to take, but the moment he touched it and both of them had skin contact with the shell, it crumbled and fell away, a sphere rolling out in to each hand.

A crystal of what appeared to be materia was held in Reno's left hand that was mostly purple, but had a swirl of yellow through it - and in Tifa's right hand was a ball of materia in the opposite, it was mostly yellow with a swirl of purple lancing through it.

"Nev'r seen no materia like this before." Reno lifted it to better inspect.

"No, nor I." Tifa agreed, amazed at this. She had never seen any materia that was more than one colour before and here were two. They seemed to be special.

"Thank you." Reno looked up when Tifa spoke, unsure why she was thanking him, but she realised she was looking at the spray of Lifestream Water.

"Huh?"

"I think this was a gift from Aerith." She told him and he seemed confused by that and neither of them noticed Tseng wheeling Rufus in as they were so engrossed in the strangeness of the moment and these special materia.

"Prob'ly not meant fer me, then. I should give it ta Strife."

"No." Tifa looked back at the water and closed her eyes as she closed her fist around the materia and seemed to be reaching out somehow. "I think _we_ were supposed to find these."

"I ain't no good guy." He said, looking down at the orb in his hand incredulously as Tseng and Rufus listened from the dark shadows nearby.

"Maybe that is the point?" She challenged. "You said purple lights were seen in the Northern Crater the night we came out of the crystal and yellow lights were seen here? There are yellow and purple flowers all around us - and these are yellow and purple. It must mean _something_. Why would the Lifestream have kept you alive if these were meant for Cloud and I? Cloud was with me within Holy. The Lifestream did not sustain him, but it sustained _you_. Its all connected somehow. I just don't know how."

"Just go' a feelin'?" He asked.

"Yes. I feel like Aerith is trying to tell me something, but I am no Cetra. I cannot understand fully. I can only guess." Rufus' squeaky wheel alerted them to his presence when he signaled to Tseng to come out of the shadows.

"Out for a walk?" He asked.

"Er, yeah Boss." Reno stuck his materia in his pocket and scratched the back of his head when he realised they had company.

"I could not sleep." Tifa explained.

"When did this happen?" Rufus gestured to the fountain.

"Jus' now." Reno confirmed. "Its water an' Lifestream, we think."

"Hmm. Tseng." Tseng knew what he meant and he wheeled Rufus closer to the water and the Shin-Ra President was trying to figure out why it had erupted like this and what it meant, when he leaned in too close and got wet...and then little green lights lifted from the geostigma stains on his wrist and moments later - the disease had left his hand.

"Sir!" Reno gasped as Tifa looked on amazed and Tseng's eyes went wide. Rufus ignored it and cupped his hands, catching some before ripping his head bandage off and doing it again, this time splashing the water on his face. The horrible black-grey splotches on his forehead and down the side of his eye did the same, dissolving into Lifestream and curing him of the geostigma.

"She has sent a cure..." Tifa breathed out in awe and Rufus looked up at the water.

"Thank you."

\---

In the Northern Crater, as the sole Shin-Ra left was cured of his geostigma, Sephiroth laughed. She had made her first move - her first mistake of this new world.

The three smudges at his feet enlarged and elongated, taking human shape and cladding themselves in a leathery material made of the corrupted Lifestream their Brother had been cultivating since his emergence from the mako crystal.

"Kadaj. Yazoo. Loz." Sephiroth knew their names and looked upon them. "Mother has work for us."

"Anything Mother wishes." Kadaj spoke and dropped to one knee before his Brother.

"Anything Mother wishes." Echoed Yazoo and Loz as they too, took a knee.

Sephiroth laughed and it echoed off of the crater walls. "Soon, Mother. I know your wishes. Black Materia is gone, but Omega may come forth and fulfill your desires to rid the cosmos of this Planet's life."


	4. Lifestream Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He pounced and she dodged, he snapped an arm back and stopped her fully evading him and he snagged her hip and pulled her in to him. She tried to escape, but was hampered by laughing at him and they both lost their footing in the tussle and fell to the floor. They had a mini wrestling match on the ground as he tried to get his weapon back and she twisted around, rolling away from him and he following her. They were both howling with laughter and it quickly devolved again into a tickle attack as he tried to win his weapon back by any means necessary.

The next morning, everyone except Cid had cancelled their travel plans as Rufus sent word out that the new water fountain in the Dome Meadow could cure geostigma and they had an influx of locals and Reeve concentrated on getting the word out to sufferers further afield than Neo Midgar to come here for treatment. 

Cid had gone against the tide of people and headed to Junon, caught a ship to Costa del Sol and then hired a buggy to Rocket Town to help finish the airship Shera was building.

No one knew how long the water might last so all focus was on getting anyone with geostigma to the water and they relayed the news through every available means possible. They also collected some in bottles just in case.

As the week passed, every sufferer in the East Continent was cured of the disease, Marlene bursting in to happy tears as her friend Denzel was healed finally and travellers came by ship from the rest of the Planet in their droves.

AVALANCHE also spent more time by necessity with Rufus and his Turks and the hostilities were lessening from that side as they saw for themselves that this group were still not exactly 'good and virtuous', but that they were trying their best to atone for what they - and by extension their former company - had done. Granted, most of it had been perpetrated by Rufus' father and his goons, but Rufus and the Turks were hardly blameless, either.

They could see for themselves the ways in which Neo Midgar was not like old Midgar and though there was less luxury, the people seemed contented. There was no upper plate or under plate. The divides that had been prevalent in society were not anywhere near as much so as before. Yes, some divide was appearing as some people were able to reap the benefits more than others and were amassing greater Gil-Credits, but all-in-all the differences were minor. Every able bodied person was expected to do some work in helping rebuild their lives and the workforce only increased now they were no longer losing otherwise healthy people to geostigma.

Tifa and Reno found themselves gravitating to the fountain in the late evenings and were secretly starting to count on the other being there. Reno was amazed and somewhat touched that the woman was even willing to have a friendly conversation with him after their uneasy past and she was surprised at how good a conversationalist he could actually be. She had always thought him just loud and a bit gobby, but she was starting to see why Rufus and the other Turks put up with him. She could see why he and Rude had such a good chemistry and relationship together, they genuinely enjoyed each other's company and complimented one another. 

She was building a relationship with Rude and Elena as well, spending more time with them than Tseng or Rufus and she found she liked the pair immensely. Rude was quiet; but when he spoke, he showed himself to be thoughtful and intelligent. She also liked it when he took his sunglasses off one day to wipe off a smudge and she had seen his eyes properly and up close for the first time and wondered if he wore them to appear more menacing as he had soft and kind eyes behind them. Yuffie had enjoyed standing in for Reno's incessant chatter when Tifa and the redhead himself had been talking over dinner one evening as they had been seated to allow for conversation and they had spent a long time just chatting and making each other laugh - to surprise from most seated nearby.

Elena was a riot and one night had seen the three women go for a walk together after a particularly large dinner and she and Yuffie had had Tifa in stitches with their jokes. Elena could get herself wound up sometimes, but when she relaxed a little, she was really enjoyable company.

Vincent seemed to gravitate to Tseng more than the others, which did not really surprise anyone and they could often be found in quiet conversation over a cup of coffee. Rufus was feeling significantly better now and though he still needed his wheelchair as his muscles had atrophied somewhat during his bout with geostigma, he was able to take a few steps and build up his stamina again and he did not need such constant aid from his Turks, freeing them up.

Barret spent most of his time at the orphanage or with Reeve at the local W.R.O. location and Reeve had given him a job. He was working on securing an apartment in a newly built block as he now had a job to put on his application. While most of the others seemed content to accept Rufus' hospitality a little longer, he did not and it was partly driven by slowly eroding but long-standing dislike of anything Shin-Ra but mostly by his wanting to be with Marlene again.

Yuffie had called her father using Rude's PHS one day and though she still wanted to go and visit him and see Wutai again, she decided to stay in Neo Midgar a little longer first. Nanaki was enjoying going with Cloud on long rambles and they had even taken a two day trip together and ventured over the crater rim and seen for themselves the lush grasslands and temperate forests that lay beyond.

As the week drew to a close, an airship docked at the edge of the city and Cid returned, Shera and some air crew along with several geostigma sufferers from further afield. They were all taken to the Lifestream water and healed. A few Icicle Inn region refugees had also travelled. 

"We rounded up everyone we could find with it." Cid explained. "After we got the _Shera_ up an' runnin'."

"You named your ship 'Shera'?" Yuffie giggled and the woman who was the vehicle's namesake blushed.

"Yeh. What?" Cid asked, but the others just smirked at him in amusement and declined to answer.

"We have had some reports filter through that there is activity in the Northern Crater. Some people from the Northern Continent decided to come with us because they were scared." Shera herself told them and they realised what that likely meant and she continued. "They think they saw Sephiroth, but there were three unknown silver-haired men with him."

"Verify this." Rufus commanded and his Turks had hurried off to speak to the refugees and to try to make contact with associates in that region for confirmation.

A rumour was starting to spread that it was AVALANCHE that had brought them the healing water as that was where they had been located, encased in crystal for so many years. _They_ knew it was really Aerith, but the rumour persisted anyway. Rufus had arranged for them all to get the starting Gil-Credits he had allowed all other Neo Midgar residents to have when they had awoken here so they had some little income to their names.

That evening, Tifa had gone to a metalsmith and picked up the item she had got them to make - a necklace that she could slot her new materia in to - and she was wearing it as she made her usual after dinner trip to the Dome Meadow. She felt it meant something and that was likely the place to find out what. She was convinced it had something to do with her dear departed friend and this place had been special to the woman.

Unbeknownst to her, Reno had had the same idea and had commissioned a wrist band for his. Neither of them had been able to figure out what they did - but Tifa kept persevering. It was only a matter of time and trial and they would figure it out.

The rest of the meadow had emptied for the night as people had returned to the Shera, to their homes or headed out to the bar district and it was eerie in here at night for most but Tifa found it peaceful and relaxing.

"Yo." Reno was already there in his usual spot, in the midst of a patch of purple flowers as Tifa took up her accustomed spot in the neighbouring yellow flower patch.

"Yo yourself." She smiled at him and he smirked at her light teasing, but he had something important to impart to her.

"Jus' reported in to Rufus. He's tellin' the others now - the reports have confirmed Sephiroth and three unknowns are in the Forbidden City." He told her and she nodded, taking it in. Sephiroth would attack, just when and where? What was his new goal now they had prevented him from imbibing godlike power from the Lifestream? She did not know.

"He'll go after Cloud." Tifa decided and looked at the fountain. "I doubt he will like this water, either, as Aerith gave it to us."

"How're ya at fightin' now?" Reno asked and Tifa shrugged.

"Well, I have no idea if I'll be out of practice or not. I guess we'll have to see what kind of effect being crystallised had." She mused. "He won't go easy on us."

"Try me." She looked over at him as his offer sank in. "I won' hurt ya or nothin'."

"You sure?" She asked and he smirked at her.

"I offered didn' I?"

"Okay. Apologies if I hurt you." She forewarned as if she were to test out her power, she would need to try her limits within reason. She did not want to kill him by accident.

"Bring it, Lockhart." He smirked and enjoyed the way her eyes lit up and her pretty face settled into a smile, lifting his mag-rod in his left hand and tapping it on his shoulder and beckoning her in with his right. She in turn, ignored the hormones screaming at her how sexy he was when he did that, drew on her Premium Heart gloves and lifted her fists into a ready stance.

She lunged at him, leading with her right fist and he dodged, swinging his baton up to parry her follow-up attack, feeling a dull thud going through him at the sheer power of her attack and was very glad he had dodged it. Just how good had she got since they last fought in Gongaga? He guessed she could probably one-punch and take out a Blue Dragon. He did _not_ want to get in the way of that, even if she was being a little careful.

He twisted and turned, ducked and leaped away from her attacks and was very grateful that he was as fast as he was as it did not appear that being crystallised for roughly five centuries had dulled her power or speed. His mag-rod parried and blocked anything he could not twist away from and through the beads of sweat building on his brow, he realised that her grace as a fighter was a cut above anything he had ever seen and she was not using any of her special attacks, just sparring.

He had known many great and some legendary fighters, but watching Tifa Lockhart move was something else altogether. He paid for his moment of inattention as he did not twist away quick enough and blinked in shock when no punch landed - instead his mag-rod was gone. He looked up and Tifa started to laugh, looking incredulously at her hand - she had stolen his mag-rod!

"Hey!" He griped, reaching for his weapon, but she twisted artfully away from him and waved it at him annoyingly and mockingly.

"I guess we know what the yellow materia does." She chuckled and he blinked at her.

"Its a Steal materia?" He asked, in disbelief.

"I guess so?" She confirmed, she had not meant to take his weapon, but her materia had reached out to her in that moment and she had reacted and activated it. "Seems an odd thing for Aerith to give me..."

"Pfft, whatever it is, stop channelling the Wutai brat and gimme back my stuff." He pouted for effect at her and she poked her tongue out at him. Minx.

He pounced and she dodged, he snapped an arm back and stopped her fully evading him and he snagged her hip and pulled her in to him. She tried to escape, but was hampered by laughing at him and they both lost their footing in the tussle and fell to the floor. They had a mini wrestling match on the ground as he tried to get his weapon back and she twisted around, rolling away from him and he following her. They were both howling with laughter and it quickly devolved again into a tickle attack as he tried to win his weapon back by any means necessary.

He realised he was thoroughly enjoying himself a mere instant before his hormones agreed and he felt his blood rushing south at her proximity and incessant wriggling beneath his body, which was stretched out over her. He needed to stop this.

He pulled back and sat on his haunches and breathed deeply, trying to think of the least sexy things he could think of in a bid to stop her realising just why he had pulled away. She was still chuckling on the ground, but it was easing now he was not actively tickling her. He made the mistake of looking at her and he felt his cheeks warming up, her hair had come a little loose from her ponytail in the playful scuffle and her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were bright with amusement and her expansive chest was heaving with her breathing and he suddenly realised he had never seen anyone look as alluring as she did in that moment.

"You all right?" She asked, looking over at him with concern replacing the amusement in her eyes.

"Yeah! Yeah, I just suddenly though' what if your spiky haired friend walked in and saw me tickling ya like tha'. Probably have my head off thinkin' I was hurtin' ya." He lied, though it was a likely scenario.

"Nice try," she retorted and pushed herself up to her feet. "Still not just handing this over, though."

"Ah well," He joked, getting to his feet and glad he felt himself reverting to normal now she was not so close. It was better she was not clued in to his real reason. "Worth a try."

She stood and mimicked his 'come and get it' gesture from earlier and waved his mag-rod at him teasingly. He smirked and readied himself to go for it, realising his materia was calling out to him in the way she had said hers was earlier and he let its power roll through him. He felt his already legendary speed boosted and he shot towards her faster than she had anticipated and he snatched his mag-rod from her hands and spun her around in the circle of his arms to ensure he did not knock her over from the momentum.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. Wow, that was fast, even for you." She said, having been blindsided by his burst of speed.

"I think it were this." He said, letting go of her with his left hand and showing her his wrist band with the materia embedded within.

"So you got a Speed Plus and I got a Steal?" She asked, confused.

"No idea why this will be a useful combination, but I guess we'll find ou'." He mused and realised he also needed to let go of her with his right hand and he did so before it got embarrassing and awkward.

"We should do this again." Tifa said, looking pleased as they noticed someone else walking in.

"What's going on here?" It was Cloud and he was looking suspiciously at the pair as he had seen Reno holding her and then letting go hastily, but they were still standing awfully close to one another and they seemed comfortable with that.

"Sparrin', yeah?" Reno shrugged and stepped back, feeling awkward but refusing to show it.

"Reno was letting me practice." Tifa elaborated. "I haven't since we came to."

"Hmm." Cloud nodded, though he still narrowed his eyes at Reno. He was not sure he liked what e had seen over the last week of these two getting more comfortable with each other. Something about it seemed to gnaw at him. He and Tifa had shared a moment, thinking they were about to march to their demise - but they had not and now she seemed to be slipping away from him. She turned and bestowed a brilliant smile on him and he started to question his suspicions. He was not used to this sort of thing, being mentally younger than he was in physicality, he had not yet matured to the level she had. Maybe he was misreading the situation?

"I got a new materia - look." She showed him her necklace. "Its a Steal. Not sure if it'll be useful, but it can't hurt to have something else in the arsenal."

"True." He agreed.

"I should probably turn in. Thanks for your help, Reno."

"Anytime, yeah?" He replied and let the AVALANCHE pair walk back together, electing to stay where he was. He sat in front of the fountain and flopped in the ground.

Fuck. He was starting to _like_ the Lockhart woman. That way spelled pain and rejection - she was in love with Spiky, after all. He decided sitting here thinking about it was not his style, so he pulled himself to his feet and headed for a club in Newall where he could drink, dance and forget about a certain enticing woman.

The next day he hardly saw her, she and Strife headed to the orphanage with Wallace and were then going out for a walk for her to get more sparring practice in with her blond friend. Maybe it was for the best as he was no saviour of the Planet hero type.

That evening, they had all decided to go to the Dome Meadow together as they wanted to see if they could determine how long the geyser would last and if the shattered Lifestream crystal might yield more materia.

Reno stood between Rude and Rufus, the President had chosen to walk but Elena had brought his wheelchair just in case he needed it as his strength was growing daily but he could sometimes get tired quickly still.

As usual, the location emptied of others outside of this group as it got dark and they went in specifically at that time to give them peace and quiet and the space they needed for this task.

They sifted through the shattered materials but could find no instances of materia, much to Yuffie's loud disappointment. Wutai no longer needed it against a Midgar threat, but she had been hunting it for so long it was like second nature to her to seek it out for her own.

"There's nothing here, maybe some of your scientists could look more closely at - " Vincent stated flatly, but he broke off and hissed in pain as he got too close to the geyser of Lifestream Water and it seemed to hurt him. He stepped away quickly and everyone looked between him and the water.

"Wait, did the water _hurt_ you?" Yuffie half-asked, half-exclaimed as the others looked on in confusion.

"Aerith would never hurt any of us." Tifa stated, it was just a fact and they knew it.

"She might if she thought Chaos was a threat." Vincent reminded them as his visage started to morph and change in front of them in reaction to the water. Rufus and the Turks had never seen him appear as Chaos, but AVALANCHE had and the two groups looked on in fascination as his bandanna merged with his head and sprouted horn-like appendages above his skull, as his eyes changed to a glowing golden colour and as ragged black and red wings burst from his back where his cloak had been. A pale white-grey light emanated from his chest and he looked demonic, but _incredible_.

"She still would not hurt you just to get at Chaos." Tifa reiterated and the man gave a small and wary glance at the water.

"Then perhaps this is not her will. Or perhaps she is trying to warn us that Chaos may become a threat and this is the only way she can."

"It is written that Chaos is the harbinger of Omega." Rufus said, remembering something he had read in his father's classified files after he had become the new President and gained access to them.

"Omega?" Barret asked, looking like he was searching his memory for any mention of that name. He was surprisingly well versed in philosophies and mantras from the past.

"I do not recall all of the details, but I read it in Dr. Crescent's report." Rufus admitted.

"You read Lucrecia's report?" Chaos-Vincent asked him, surprised.

"Yes, it was in my father's classified files I unsealed when I took over as President." Rufus clarified. "I read it and I do recall that it is a weapon designed to destroy all life on the Planet. Chaos drives life to the Lifestream and Omega is to take that life into itself and depart the Planet."

"That's got to be Sephiroth's new plan." Cloud looked up and stated simply, the others all looking at him. "Sephiroth wanted to draw godlike power into himself and use this Planet as a vessel to travel the cosmos as JENOVA once did."

"So Vincent is his target?" Yuffie asked, concerned.

"Most likely." Tifa agreed. 

"I wish I still had access to that report." Rufus said, bitterly. What else had his father been a part of? When would he ever be free of the man's insidious presence and maniacal plans?

"Maybe we do..." Cid spoke up and Chaos-Vincent looked up sharply.

"You mean..?"

"If we survived encased in crystal, then she likely did." Cid confirmed.

"Who?" Rufus asked.

"Doctor Lucrecia Crescent. She entombed herself in the Crystal Cave in repentance for...this." He swept his hand down his demonic form. "She saved my life after I was shot by Hojo by placing Chaos within me."

"Then we must find her, if anyone can understand what Sephiroth is up to, it will be her." Rufus determined and AVALANCHE looked at one another with unease.

"I told her Sephiroth was dead. To spare her the pain of knowing what he had become." Chaos-Vincent told them.

"Why would that - " Rufus asked, but Chaos-Vincent interrupted him, starting to slide back into his human visage now.

"Because Lucrecia Crescent is Sephiroth's real mother."

"...I see." Rufus said as Reno swore quietly behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad I got this one out, hardly written anything this past week as we had a historically high heatwave here in England that meant I could not think straight enough to write and was busy keeping my poor cats nice and cool. It finally broke yesterday so fingers crossed I'll be back to normal.
> 
> Thank you for the kudos, it is always lovely to see and a bit of a motivational boost! <3
> 
> Also, recently started a Discord server, which you are welcome to join, here https://discord.gg/CYSNWhD. I post up little updates on my story writing, popped up a couple of Sims (as I cannot draw for beans) of some OCs in my stories and will do more of those as well going forward. I'd love to see you there!


	5. Chaos Crystal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sorry, Tifa. It'll haf'ta wait. Tonight, under the tree?"
> 
> "Sure."
> 
> "Its a date." He teased, though something in him fluttered with interest as she smiled softly and her eyes sparkled. Cloud clenched his jaw more tightly at the choice of words.
> 
> "Pick me up at seven?" She retorted and he smirked at her, decided not to push his luck and gave her a two-point salute as he retreated below decks to type out his report on his PHS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Descriptive fighting in this chapter with broken bones.
> 
> In case anyone is interested in the AVALANCHE set up for weapons, armour, accessories etc. for this story, you can see my grid plan here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/709154452497629274/745577836060082176/Combination_Armour_Setup.JPG

The next morning, Vincent was on the Shera airship and on his way to the Crystal Cave along with Cid and his air crew, Tifa, Cloud, Reno and Rude. Tifa and Cloud had gone for both moral support and fighting strength if needed - and Rufus had insisted on sending Reno and Rude in his stead as well as back up as he could not fight in his current physical state.

Barret had not been pleased with the notion of the Turks going to the Crystal Cave, but Marlene and Denzel had come by to visit and Marlene had pointed out that she thought it was a good idea to all get to know one another better.

"They did look after us all while you were in the crystal, Daddy." She told him and he begrudgingly agreed to it, unable to countermand anything his precious girl wanted, even if it chafed at him.

Yuffie had wanted to join them but thought better of it due to her air-sickness as she would likely be a hindrance rather than an asset in the skies and they set off, not wanting to lose time as no one knew what Sephiroth's planned schedule might be and they did not want to get caught short.

It had, in the end, turned out to be a very good idea that Reno and Rude were on board as halfway between Costa del Sol and the Crystal Cave, Vincent had lost control as an unnoticed tendril of corrupted Lifestream interacted with the protomateria and Chaos was bursting forth by itself.

Cid and the air crew immediately descended towards the nearest patch of flat enough ground to land and opened the hatch and dropped them all unceremoniously to the ground so they would not tear up his airship in their fighting and attempts to subdue Chaos.

Chaos fully burst out of Vincent and took over as it made landfall, the man it inhabited seemingly unable to stop or control the beast and it attacked as soon as it wrested control from him. As Cloud tried to parry the Chaos Sabre, he took a decent amount of damage to his arm as he did so due to the sheer power and force behind the attack, Tifa leaped to her feet and launched herself at Chaos to buy Cloud some time, all four of them taking damage, but Cloud taking the brunt of it as he was the closest to the attack.

"I'm sorry, Vincent!" Tifa called as she connected solidly with Chaos' knee and hurt it, also preventing it from using a follow-up attack on Cloud, who drew on his Restore materia to heal the damage done. He followed up with a casting of All-Barrier on the four of them to protect them as Chaos was very powerful and they needed every advantage they could get.

After connecting solidly with her punch, Tifa jumped back to assess the situation as she had fought alongside Vincent for many months now and she was familiar with his various forms and Chaos had come in to help them in a pinch before and she knew exactly what they were arrayed against and knew not to underestimate him. To do so would be to die.

Reno darted in and let his mag-rod do the fighting as he released an electric charge into Chaos' right wing as it turned to try to evade him but was not fast enough and Rude came in from the other side and unleashed a Spinning Axe Kick that connected with Chaos and knocked him briefly and heavily to the ground.

"Nice one, Rude!" Reno called from Chaos' other side and he covered Tifa's back as she launched into a Star Shower and prevented Chaos from getting up a moment longer, but not long enough. He shook it off and roared, unleashing a Satan Slam on them and while he did not knock anyone down, he injured them all seriously and all four of them were bruised and bleeding. Had Cloud not cast the all-barrier, at least one of them would likely be unconscious or worse. Cloud and Reno were hurt more than Tifa and Rude by the attack as they were closer; Cloud being pretty stoic about it and Reno was panting a little due to it hurting his slighter frame more significantly.

"Vincent!" Tifa called out to her friend again, trying to reach him through the fog that had clouded his mind and she stood between Chaos and the injured pair, arms outstretched wide. Rude was standing to the side and ready if she was unable to get through to the man behind the beast. He did not want to hurt Vincent, either, but he was more pragmatic about what might need to be done if it came to it.

Tifa's attempt did not work; not entirely, at least. Chaos hesitated a moment and for a split-second it seemed that his glowing golden eyes reverted to red irises again, but then he went back to normal and attacked Tifa with a vicious physical attack. She utilised her Counter Attack materia as she could not evade it in time from her previous stance and she took damage, but the counter attack staggered Chaos and he fell back. It had felt like the Deathblow materia had when activated and she was confused - she did not _have_ Deathblow materia equipped. Not the time to be musing on it though and she prepared herself to unleash a Dolphin Flurry on him and hoping she would not damage Vincent too badly.

Injured though he was, Reno unleashed an attack and was as baffled as Tifa had just been when he went to use a physical attack but seemed to mimic her last move instead and he let loose a Deathblow and took out huge damage on Chaos. Cloud blocked Chaos' escape behind him and Rude launched a Haymaker then dodged out of Tifa's way as the Dolphin Flurry connected and downed Chaos; between the four of them able to subdue the demonic being.

Rude grabbed hold of Chaos, who was reverting back to Vincent's form and Tifa landed gracefully from her Limit Break, immediately calling down healing spells to Cloud and Reno via her mastered Restore materia.

Once they were healed, Cloud returned the favour and healed up Tifa's lesser injuries and did the same for Rude. He seemed much more willing to trust this pair now they had bled alongside them.

Chaos faded back into Vincent and Tifa apologised for having to hurt him, but he waved it off and she set about healing him also. Field cures were never perfect and though they might bring one back to full fighting strength, they left a strange ache in muscles the receiver would feel that evening. Many people disliked it, but put up with it as it was better than just leaving potentially mortal wounds. If a wound could be treated in normal, non-magical fashion, then it was.

"Just another sin to add to the list." He told her quietly and she was visibly upset by this statement.

"We'll find out why this is happening. I know you'd never willingly harm any of us." Tifa told him, laying her hand on his chest gently and looking him in the eyes, trying to impart to him her faith and trust in him and their friendship.

"Y'all good?" Cid called down and they replied that they were, so he allowed them back on the airship and they resumed their passage to the Crystal Cave.

"Tifa..." Reno sidled over to her as the green grasslands beneath them whipped past. She nodded and lead him out onto the upper deck so they could speak.

"I felt it too." She admitted to him now they had some privacy, the wind whipping around the pair of them alone on the deck. They fell silent for a long moment, just musing on what had possibly just happened, but it was too long and Cid's voice came through the tinny tannoy.

"Comin' up on the Crystal Cave, everyone to the bridge." He demanded and they looked at one another.

"Later?" He asked and she nodded.

"We'll figure it out." She assured him and they returned to the bridge where Cid showed them to the hatch, ordered his crew to keep the Shera in the air and they all rappelled down to the ground and headed for the entrance to the cave. Reno snapped a few pictures of the area to add to his report for Rufus and they went inside the eerie cave.

"Lucrecia." Vincent called softly but it was loud in the silence of the cavern.

Reno and Rude saw the woman encased in the crystal for the first time and Reno ensured to get a picture of this and they immediately knew what Vincent had told them was true - this woman was undoubtedly related to Sephiroth. She had seemingly given him his otherwise uniquely styled hair through her genetics and he resembled her facially to such a degree that it was simply a fact this woman was his biological mother.

"Vincent." A woman's voice echoed around the place but Lucrecia did not move a muscle.

"Lucrecia, I need your help." He told her crystalline form. 

"Sephiroth." The voice echoed again and the Turks wondered if this was some sort of mantra as she did not seem to be responding to them at all.

"Chaos is breaking free." That did it, the woman's eyes opened and she looked upon the group, her eyes settling on Vincent's form. "We think Omega will come forth."

The crystal seemed to melt from solid to liquid and released the woman, before it returned to a solid form again and she stepped forward.

"That is fated, Vincent." She told him, her voice a little scratchy from lack of use and though this was the same voice they had heard echoing it seemed different somehow, also.

"Can we stop it?"

"No. The Planet has set this in motion. Destiny's will be done." Lucrecia told him.

"It is not Destiny's will." Cloud stepped forward. "It is Sephiroth's."

"My son is gone." She said, a sadness to her expression and her voice. "Though if I even have the right to call him my son..."

"You bore him. He is your son." Tifa told her kindly. "No matter what became of him, you love him still, don't you?"

"Of course. I never even got to hold him in my arms, though."

"Sephiroth is not dead." Vincent told her and she flinched and stared at him, the most expressive any of them except him had ever seen her. "He was encased in crystal - as you were. He has emerged and we believe he is trying to bring forth Omega as a conduit to take in the Lifestream to himself."

"All of your files were destroyed with Midgar, Doctor. We really need your help." Tifa pleaded and the woman clenched her hands to fists in anger, stepped forward and then slapped Vincent, hard.

"You lied to me." She accused and he stared her down.

"You did not want to know." Vincent replied, coolly.

"And now I have no choice, do I? I cannot just let my child run rampant. I must step up and punish my errant son."

"We both have sins. We can choose to hide ourselves away, in crystal or in sealed coffins - but we can never be absolved if we do not try." Whatever that meant exactly, the others were not to know though Tifa, Cid and Cloud knew more than the Turks - but whatever it was - it worked. Lucrecia turned to Tifa instead.

"Take me to your lab." They all left the cave, Lucrecia pointedly ignoring Vincent and staying close to Tifa. They re-boarded the Shera and Lucrecia stated that she was tired and Tifa showed her to where she could rest, saying that she had been tired when she had emerged from crystal stasis as well.

Deciding she needed some air after all of that, Tifa closed the door on Lucrecia who was already falling to a much needed real sleep and she went back out on to the deck to get some air and sort out her thoughts - and try to figure out what was happening with her and with the strange dual materia.

"What are you trying to show me?" Tifa asked the sky, but there was no reply. Barely five minutes after she had sought refuge on the deck, Reno joined her up there and heard her addressing no one.

"Hey. You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just felt really bad for her." Tifa admitted.

"Thinking yer kid is dead then findin' out they ain't only to be told they're batshit insane and tryin' to destroy the world..? Yeah, bit of a brainfuck, that." He agreed. "She seemed to take to ya, though."

"I don't know all of the ins and outs, but I was there when we found her. It was me, Cloud and Vincent making up the main party that day - we used to take it in turns to rest and pace ourselves - but it was, well...seeing her face when Vincent told her that her son was dead..." she sighed "I understand why he did it, but I felt for her anyway."

"Yeah." Reno sighed and rested his forearms on the railing. "Who were ya talkin' to just now? Aerith?"

"Yes. I'm trying to understand these materia and what she wants to tell me with them." She admitted and mimicked his pose, standing close to him at the railing.

"Think ya ever will?" He asked, looking over at her and she shrugged.

"I don't know if I can. I mean, speaking with the Planet was a Cetra ability and I'm a regular normal human girl. Going to keep trying, though. I owe her that."

"Ya don' _owe_ her anythin'. You was her friend. That was all she woulda wan'ed, I reckon." Reno told Tifa and then his mouth continued on without his brain intervening. "And ya ain't just ' _a regular normal human girl_ '. Ya fought for the Planet and could kick my arse nine ways from Sunday and I ain't no slouch, yeah?"

"Doesn't mean I can understand what she wants to tell me." Tifa retorted.

"Then we figure this shit out together, yeah?" He drew himself up and told her in a commanding tone. "Startin' with this fucking weird-arse materia we got."

"Right. I think they have more than one power."

"Yeah, me an' all. I mean, makes sense I guess. Never 'eard of it before but its more than one colour and I never seen that before, neither."

"It felt like Deathblow." She admitted and he nodded, thoughtfully. His usual demeanour and attitude made people think he was not much of a thinker - but he would not be second in command of the Turks if he could not follow a line of thought and he put his mind to the task.

"Mine felt like that too, but I think it might'a been Mime."

"I think Aerith must have somehow created these. The Cetra of old were able to manipulate the Lifestream and create materia; maybe she learned how. I think she intends for us to use them against Sephiroth."

"Yeah. Especially if he has got three more silver haired gits with him. He is tough enough on his own..."

"...And we don't know if he absorbed any Lifestream power on top of that." They were able to put their minds together and think to figure this conundrum out. They had to.

"It might not 'ave gone to him. We never saw any Lifestream until we died - an' if he had become god-like, he would'a been able to break out of the crystal, right? I think you lot managed to stop him getting at it, so ya didn' fail after all if that's the case."

"I hope you are right about that. It took all of us just to stop him escaping the crater." Tifa sighed in remembrance. Some of Sephiroth's attacks would have killed them had their luck been any worse - or if they had not gone in equipped with ribbons, powerful weapons and a lot of mastered materia between them. There had been a point where all three groups had been pitted against the man and even then they had had trouble subduing him.

"I wonder why _I_ got this materia. I mean, I hardly use the things. I prefer to use my physical skills."

"Knowing both is better." She told him and he laughed in agreement with that assessment, having seen how effectively the AVALANCHE group had utilised it.

"Yeah. Thinkin' you about to win a fight and then seeing the fuckers heal themselves right in front o' ya is a right ball-ache." Tifa grinned at him, remembering they had done just that in Gongaga. Reno's face had been a picture when Cloud had been healed of his wounds and continued the fight; Reno and Rude having to retreat, 'victorious'. "Wanna try to figure these things out, then? See just what she's given us?" 

"We have the space and the time." Tifa mused, agreeing and pushing herself up to a ready stance. They could attack one another like before and see what happened with the materia. Both had already been healed today by magic and would feel it later, anyway. Might as well take advantage.

"Might as well, yeah?" They were interrupted again, however, by Rude this time as he came up to the deck looking for Reno, Cloud hot on his heels with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Boss wants a full written report by the time we land." The big man stated.

"You do it." Reno shot back over his shoulder, not wanting to be bothered again and wanting to stay with Tifa and to puzzle this materia thing out.

"He says for you to do it." Rude stood firm and Reno cursed under his breath. Rufus would want to read a written report before they arrived so he could formulate questions of the pair, Reno was all too aware of his preferences for intel.

"Sorry, Tifa. It'll haf'ta wait. Tonight, under the tree?"

"Sure."

"Its a date." He teased, though something in him fluttered with interest as she smiled softly and her eyes sparkled. Cloud clenched his jaw more tightly at the choice of words.

"Pick me up at seven?" She retorted and he smirked at her, decided not to push his luck and gave her a two-point salute as he retreated below decks to type out his report on his PHS. Rude watched him leave, shot an appraising and intrigued look at Tifa and then followed his friend back below deck.

"You and Reno seem chummy." Cloud griped as he stepped up to his childhood friend.

"He's not so bad." Tifa agreed. "He makes me laugh."

"Oh." Cloud did not know how to reply to that. He could not recall a time when he had made Tifa laugh out of simple mirth.

"Come on, we should go downstairs and get some rest. I'm still sore from the fight." Tifa followed the Turks below, wondering what they have all gone through in the last five years and when in the Lifestream all the way back to Neo Midgar. Whatever it was, they still seemed to be inherently the same people, just with a slightly softer worldview and perhaps, more resolve to act on what their consciences told them. Perhaps the two groups really could be friends and a little something not dissimilar to what Reno had felt fluttered through her at the thought of perhaps also, more.


	6. Bloom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reno came up behind her and stood beside her, showing her the time on his PHS - 6:59PM.
> 
> "I figured ya didn't allow lateness, yo."
> 
> "You figured right." She teased; actually she was not really a huge stickler for it, though she did appreciate when people were not late just for the simple politeness of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up so long winded, I split in into two chapters!

Their arrival at Neo Midgar was just as the city's workers were downing tools for the night and heading home, to Newall or looking for a spot for their dinner in the pattern that had become their new routine.

Lucrecia had awakened about ten minutes before landing and had freshened up onboard before they disembarked and headed for the meeting with the others. They entered the Shin-Ra building and Reno showed them all to the lab where it was presumed Lucrecia would take up her role to help them figure out what was happening with Chaos, Vincent and her son, Sephiroth.

Barret and Cloud had begun to protest having the meeting here feeling like they were bowing to Shin-Ra's wishes too much, but Lucrecia shut that down quickly by stating that unless she was allowed to speak to Rufus himself, she would return immediately to the Crystal Cave.

They arrayed themselves around, most of them either standing or on the various chairs, Yuffie sitting on a workbench and eating a dumbapple as she surveyed the room.

"Dr. Crescent, I presume. A pleasure, I am Rufus Shin-Ra." Rufus was standing to greet her, though Tseng had his wheelchair nearby in case he needed it, his hand outstretched to greet her.

"You were just a small child when I went into the crystal." Lucrecia looked upon him as she lifted her hand to shake his offered one. "I suppose this brings it home how long I was sealed away."

"Please, be seated." He offered, but she declined for the time being.

"I am happy to remain standing for now." She told them. "I have a lot to tell, however."

"Please take your time." Rufus told her and he leaned against the side, his muscles were not up to standing for extended periods yet, but they were improving and he did not wish to sit if she stood.

"I suppose I ought to start from the beginning, I have had hundreds of years in stasis to reflect and it is time I owned up to my sins." She still sounded hesitant, but she continued on, trying to get this story that had been poisoning her soul for so long out and purged from her. "I was a scientist with the Research and Development team at Shin-Ra under the previous President Shin-Ra - a Class A Biotechnologist. I was assigned to be the assistant to Doctor Valentine..."

"Not me." Vincent supplied as many heads snapped over to where he loomed in the corner, arms folded as usual.

"No, Grimoire Valentine - Vincent's father." Lucrecia clarified for them, reminding them all she was far older than she looked. "Together, we discovered two WEAPONs - Chaos and Omega - and he wrote the first Omega Reports. He was a good man, kind, patient and he avoided rushing headlong into the unknown without precaution. We discovered the Crystal Cave, which was where we determined Chaos would emerge and Doctor Valentine believed the crystalline spring contained contaminated deposits of bioplasma that had overflown from the pure Lifestream. We also discovered the Protomateria - a seemingly unique materia we believed was created by corrupted - or dark - Lifestream."

"Corrupted Lifestream?" Rufus asked.

"Yes, I felt it surging while encased in the crystal, I believe my son is using it now and I think it was a component of the Planet Scar Syndrome you recently eradicated."

"Geostigma?" Rufus asked and Lucrecia nodded.

"However, there was an accident. Doctor Valentine was killed protecting me from the blast." She clenched her fists and looked directly at Vincent with sadness in her eyes. 

"His last words were about you." Vincent stood stock still in the corner and made no reply, but those that knew him could tell he was deeply affected by those words.

"After Doctor Valentine died, my research was discarded and derided as 'nonsense' and I was reassigned to work on the JENOVA project with Doctor Gast Faremis and Professor Hojo."

"Aerith's father?" Tifa asked, pushing herself up, she remembered those disturbing files they had discovered in Icicle Inn.

"Yes, he was a good man. Unlike so many others." Lucrecia confirmed. "While in Nibelheim, we had a member of the Department of Administrative Research assigned to keep us safe...it was Vincent. When he - when you arrived, I did not know what to think. I felt like I was being punished somehow. I am sorry I did not tell you then that I recognised you as Grimoire's son, I felt so guilty that he had died protecting me and now _you_ were assigned to protect me too. I feared you might have the same fate..."

"You were odd the first time I met you. It makes sense." Was all Vincent offered, hating that this history was necessary to air like this, but knowing it needed to be told so they could plan out what they would do about Sephiroth and his three unknown accomplices.

"Vincent and I...grew close...during our time there and one day he discovered a file regarding work I had done with his father and realised I had known him, that I had been responsible for his death. I panicked and made the biggest mistake of my life. I fled from Vincent and within a couple of months, I was married to Professor Hojo and pregnant with a son. My estranged husband convinced me to experiment on our unborn child as we had tried to do in the past - but this time with JENOVA cells. I knew then what a grave sin I had committed, following him down that path; I had extreme pains and had visions of the atrocities the child growing within me would one day commit." She had started to pace as she told her story and then sat down heavily on a chair.

"Vincent found out what was happening to me and to my child and he confronted Hojo about it. Hojo shot him and killed him, experimenting on him and then deeming him a failure and discarded his body. I retrieved Vincent and used my so-called nonsense theories to save him. I could not let him die the way I had let his father die, trying to protect me. I inserted Chaos into him as he could now physically take it and the Protomateria to allow him to control the beast after I realised it could contain him. I believed the Planet created it out of necessity as a means to control Chaos and prolong its own inevitable fate."

"I never blamed you for my father." Vincent stated quietly.

"No, I know that. I blamed myself though." Lucrecia replied and the others in the room pretended they were not there for this rather tender moment and then Lucrecia pulled her gaze from Vincent and looked back at Rufus. "Either the Protomateria is starting to fail or something is corrupting it. Once I know which, I believe I can help you. I fear my son may call forth Omega now his original plan was thwarted. I cannot seal myself away in repentance any more, but I am ready to face the consequences of my actions and then be absorbed into the Lifestream when it is time...if it accepts me."

"What do you hypothesise might be the cause of Chaos' emergence?" Rufus asked her.

"They were protected by the magic of Holy for centuries. Holy was never intended to be used that way, I believe it has weakened itself significantly during that protection and now it cannot prevent corruption getting at it. That is the most likely theory and the first one I intend to investigate." Lucrecia told him as a matter of fact.

"You will have everything you need - excepting mako as we no longer make it." Rufus told her and she nodded, Barret eyeing him as he spoke.

"I will not require it, I will need some materia, however." The pair discussed it and sorted her out with a bedroom and a shower room where she cleaned up and they ensured the lab was stocked with everything she thought she may need to investigate this so they could have some shred of hope against Sephiroth's inevitable attack.

"I forgive you your lie." Lucrecia told Vincent quietly as the others flitted around setting up. "I knew deep down Sephiroth was not dead, he had more JENOVA exposure than I did and I cannot die so easily."

"You _know_ I never blamed you over my father, why do you keep punishing yourself?" She smiled sadly at him.

"You are probably the worst person to ask that of me." She replied and he just looked at her - she was right. She had sealed herself away in crystal in repentance for her sins and, as he had reminded her earlier, he had done exactly the same just in a coffin instead of crystal. Neither of them had dealt with their perceived sins, both had chosen to exile themselves from the world instead. They needed to step up now and right their wrongs.

As Lucrecia got Vincent on the laboratory table and started looking into her hypothesis about Chaos and Vincent's recent difficulties in keeping the demon under control, Tifa slipped out of the complex and headed for the ruins of the crystalline tree, mind swirling with everything. Some she had known, but not all and it hurt her heart to think of what these two had been through. Yes, Lucrecia had done some terrible things, but she was wracked with guilt and had made poor decisions. Who had not, even if not to such an extreme degree?

Reno came up behind her and stood beside her, showing her the time on his PHS - 6:59PM.

"I figured ya didn't allow lateness, yo."

"You figured right." She teased; actually she was not really a huge stickler for it, though she did appreciate when people were not late just for the simple politeness of it.

"So, you wanna get righ' to it and try to figure out these materia or ya wanna grab a bite to eat first?"

"We could eat then try?" She suggested as her stomach growled at the mention of food, they had not stopped for a dinner like they normally did and she had expended a lot of energy today already - she would need refuelling before sparring.

"There's a place nearby, got great Costan food. You like it?" He asked as he turned for the entrance of the Dome Meadow and she stepped in beside him, he belatedly realised he could have offered her his arm but it would look awkward to do it now.

"Only ever had it as street food, so I'm not really sure. I think so?" Tifa offered, she was not sure the street food of Sector Seven of old really could capture the essence of real Costan cooking - renowned for its highly versatile and rich flavour profiles.

"I'm pretty sure you'll like it." He told her as he lead her away from the tree and they chatted as they rounded the corner, not seeing Cloud venturing in to the now-empty Meadow, thinking he might find Tifa in there.

"When did you first try it?" Tifa asked, intrigued by this man and the layers she had seen in him. Sure, he was still brash, loud and occasionally very annoying - but there was more to him than just that and it interested her, made him seem more real somehow.

"Rude lived there as a kid, yeah? His Ma used to cook a lot of the dishes still after they moved." Reno offered and Tifa raised an eyebrow in surprise. She wanted to know more and probe, but that was Rude's story to tell if he wanted to...though she could not help one question slipping out.

"Is she here?"

"Mama Polly? Nah. I guess she were one of those who decided to move on, yeah? Pro'ly wanted to see 'er husband again." Reno shrugged, though it was clear he felt bad for his friend having lost his mother to the Meteor. Tifa felt a tendril of guilt weave through her and she did not ask anything further about Rude's family - though she was interested by Reno's calling her 'Mama Polly'. Had he been close to Rude's mother as well?

"Here we are." Thankful for the distraction moments later, Tifa saw a little hole in the wall style location but it was still fancier than the places in Sector Seven had been and she liked the rustic look of the place, the building kind of reminded her of Nibelheim's architecture in it's heyday. It felt homey. "Two please, yo."

"Of course, please sit." The sole waiter in the place set them at a little table near the window and took their drinks orders - both ordering water as they did not want to be tipsy when sparring - and left them to peruse the menus.

"I like the look of the bacon & brie omelette wedges with summer salad, but I'm worried it'll be too big for a starter..." Tifa mused as they read through the lists of dishes.

"We can share it?" Reno offered. Tifa considered for a moment, then nodded as the waiter came back.

"Bacon & brie omelette wedges with summer salad to share for starters and I'll have the chorizo pilaf please Garett." Reno asked and Tifa realised he knew the waiter enough to know his name, Reno saw her looking and offered a simple explanation "I come here a lot with Rude and Elena."

"And the miss?" Garrett asked and Tifa's eyes flew back to the menu.

"Um...I'll have the caponata, please."

"Of course." Garrett took the menus, topped off their water glasses and slipped away.

"What abou' you? I mean, what did you do with yerself besides taking down megalomaniacs and evil corporations?" Reno asked to reopen the conversations between them and despite the heavy topics, their conversations recently had been light hearted and solidly ignoring how his body had reacted to her at their last spar in the Meadow, he wanted to get to know her better.

"Not much, to be honest. I helped around town, sometimes loaned a fist to the Neighbourhood Watch, tended my bar, ran a water purifier side business, looked after Marlene and tried to ensure no one broke their heads falling over drunk..." She shrugged. 

"You ran a water purifier business?" He asked, amused but also impressed at her ingenuity.

"Well, we all did. Jessie..." she looked down at her hands in remembrance of her friend but continued on, not wanting to forget Jessie or erase her memory by never speaking of her "invented them, they were great. Almost eliminated the rotten egg smell of underplate water. We sold them to locals and then replaced them for a fee when they wore out."

"Wow. Musta been powerful. I nev'r knew water didn' smell like that for anyone else until I moved t'top plate." Reno chuckled. "I thought _that_ was off until I tried it."

"I bet that was a weird sensation."

"My whole life had been a lie." He teased dramatically and Tifa chuckled.

"I grew up in Nibelheim, so we always had lovely cool mountain run-off water. We stored it in a big water tower in the centre of the village. I had a bit of a nasty shock the first time I tried Midgar water."

"What were it like growing up in the sticks?" Reno asked as the starter came out and they both helped themselves, carefully not brushing fingers as they reached in.

"There was nothing to do and everything to do at the same time." Tifa stated after a bite and then she moaned softly at the food in a manner that made a ripple roll across Reno's skin upon hearing it. "This is _so_ good."

"Guess that's similar to growing up in the slums. Bugger all to do and ye' loads to distract and kill a few hours."

"You know, I had always thought you were a top plater who affected slum behaviour and speech." Tifa admitted.

"Nah, born and bred in Sector Five, me." Reno shrugged and popped another wedge into his mouth. "Moved up top when I got hired by Shin-Ra when I were twelve."

"That young?" She asked, then mused "Though I suppose Cloud left Nibelheim and went to Midgar to join Shin-Ra when he was fourteen."

"I were a bit younger'n most'a the recruits. I guess they thought I was that good." He said, but something in his tone made Tifa wonder if that was really true. There was more to that story but now was likely not the time to pry with their still fledgling friendship.

"Wait, Sector Five - did you know Aerith?" Tifa asked.

"Not until I were assigned as one of her bodyguards, no." Reno admitted. "I were a bit older'n her and she'd'a only been a little kid when I moved. Spent most'a my time in Six anyway - fat pouches to slice and drunk idiots unable to chase me."

"I can see that." Tifa chuckled as they finished the wedges and the plate was spirited away and replaced with their main courses. Reno went a little stiff and Tifa looked up and realised Rude had just entered the restaurant and was looking at them - or so she presumed as he still had his sunglasses on.

"Reno?" Rude asked and stepped forward.

"Yo, partner." Reno resumed his more relaxed pose but Tifa guessed it was affected.

"Hi, Rude. You want to join us?" She offered, but the big man shook his head.

"Ah, Rude. It'll just be a moment." Garrett called and disappeared to the kitchen.

"Here to pick up take away. Elena was hungry and told Yuffie about this place." Rude told them for an explanation.

"And they roped you into coming to get it?" Tifa guessed and he nodded once in confirmation. "Yuffie's like that - watch out for her, she'll walk all over you if you let her."

"I think Elena's picking up tips." Rude said with a jesting tone and Tifa laughed again, thoroughly enjoying the company of her new friends immensely.

"Here you are. That'll be 457 Gil-Credits." Garret said.

"Fuck, man, how much did you order?" Reno asked, shocked as Rude handed over the money and then Garret came out with bag after bag of food.

"Feeding eleven people and one...Nanaki...is not cheap, Reno." Rude explained as the last bag came out which smelled much more healthy than the rest and they guessed that was what Nanaki had wanted. "Once Yuffie wanted to try it, it became a mass-order."

"I'll give ya a hand." Reno offered as he saw Rude loading up a pull cart outside with the myriad paper bags, Tifa more than happy to let him help and continue on with her caponata, which was just as divine as the first dish had been.

"People have noticed you two are gone." Rude told him in an undertone when they were outside.

"We had a date, remember?" Reno quipped, but added at Rude's _look_. "We're gonna spar again, but we were hungry, yeah? Thought we'd load up then go for it."

"I won't say I saw you here, but Strife knows you aren't at the Dome."

"Spiky followin' me about again?" Reno puffed.

"I think he was following _her_. Just be careful."

"You don' still like 'er do ya?" Reno asked, remembering his best friend had harboured a crush on Tifa in the old world.

"A little, but I don't think it is _me_ she is becoming interested in, Reno." Something inside him did a happy little jig at that notion. "Now go back inside before you blow your slim chances."

"Love you too, Rude." Reno called after him as his partner started to walk away, pulling the food parcels behind him in the cart and ignoring the redhead. He went back in and sat opposite Tifa.

"I can't believe how much your lot eat." Reno chuckled and Tifa smiled at him.

"You are just lucky you weren't nominated as camp cook all the time." She sighed playfully. "I swear I cooked more than the rest of them combined. No one would allow Yuffie near the campfire after she nearly killed us all one night with undercooked levikron patties, Barret finds it hard because of his gun-arm, Cid sucks at cooking, he burns everything...Cloud is passable - it was edible at least. Actually, other than me, the best cook was Cait Sith, but someone had to help him because of his little hands and the moogle was at risk of catching fire if it got close to the fire pit."

"What about Aerith?"

"Mmm." Tifa tapped her lips with her fork thoughtfully. "Better than Cloud but she usually volunteered for clean up duty - she said it was her chore at home as Elmyra did most of the cooking."

"Must've been annoying being the go-to cook." Tifa recalled Reno had said he hated cooking.

"Not really. Some nights it bothered me, but it meant I got out of having to wrangle with tents or hunt the food." She told him. "We'd usually use Ice materia to get fresh water in the pot for a broth and I'd add in any food we had foraged and if we were lucky enough to get some, I'd tear herbs into it for flavour."

"I bet Rude'd be interested to hear more about that, he gets real enthusiastic about food." Reno had half finished his meal and lifted his glass to wash it down. "Me, I just like to eat it."

"Maybe I should swap some recipes with him." She mused as she sipped her water - much more like what she used to have growing up than old style Midgar water.

"If he ever teaches you his three-milly stew, I might find myself haunting yer kitchen." He joked and she smiled at him, eyes twinkling.

"Speaking of, I really should follow Barret's lead and find a place to call my own. He is signing the paperwork tomorrow and once its all furnished, Marlene can move in."

"Mmm, what about her little friend, Denzel?" Reno asked, the two were pretty much inseparable and had been for years now.

"I've been thinking about that, I actually enquired with Ms. Folia if they would allow him to be adopted after this Sephiroth threat is over." Tifa admitted and Reno was surprised and blinked at her. "I mean, I wouldn't want to do it until the threat was gone. I would not want to adopt him only to get myself killed or something."

"You want to adopt him?" Reno asked, moved somewhat by the thought. No one would have wanted to adopt _him_ when he was around Denzel's age and an orphan. He supposed Ruluf and Veld kind of had and had watched over him - but that was on the clock. Off the clock, he was on his own - at least until Rude had been assigned to the Turks Division and they became partners. Reno remembered it like it was yesterday, Rude had thought him a gigantic pain in the backside at first but they had grown to like one another and though Rude was only two years older than him, he had finished dragging Reno up to manhood with the help of Mama Polly, who had doted on him and insisted on feeding him up even if he always stayed a skinny boy. "That's...wow."

"I've always wanted a family and he doesn't have one. I trust Marlene's judgement of his character and he seems like a nice boy. I'll give it more thought when we are safe." She finished her caponata. Reno had never really cared about having kids around, but he found himself touched by her thought even though he chastised himself for thinking about how it might affect him - he was not even certain she liked him as a person let alone wanting to be with him and he knew he found her attractive but that would likely be the end of it. It had been a nice thought, though.

"I think its great. You really are a nice person, aint'cha?" He grinned at her and finished off his pilaf and signalled for the cheque.

"I try to be." She agreed and Reno settled the bill and they stepped outside of the restaurant.

"We should pro'ly go fer a walk before we spar otherwise I won't be held responsible for what happens if ya punch me in the gut."

"Disgusting visual aside," She winced at that "I think you are right."

"Well?" This time he remembered to offer his arm and she looked at it and then him in surprise and took it, the pair walking off in the opposite direction thinking to let their food go down a bit before they finally got around to their reason for being out here in the first place.

They wandered seemingly at random, but Reno was actually taking her on a little tour of places he could regale her with anecdotes about. Over there was where some die-hard anti-Shin-Ra goon had attacked them a mere week after they all came around here from the Lifestream years ago and Reno had knocked him out with a big stick applied forcefully to the temple as he had no mag-rod at the time.

Over there was where Elena had let a little too loose one night at Reno's urging to lighten up and had attempted to confess her ill-concealed love for Tseng, except she had been dramatically gesturing at a lamppost instead. She had not remembered any of it the next day.

Just down that alley was where the tattooist that had done Reno's under eye tattoos had set up a new shop.

"When did you get them?" Tifa asked, with curiosity.

"They were my sixteenth birthday present to m'self." He explained. 

"What made you get such dramatic ones on your face?" She had always been curious but it had never seemed appropriate to bring it up before.

"I actually have a scar under one of them I wanted to cover up. Figured it'd look lopsided on its own so I did both sides." He stopped and leaned down a little so she could see his face clearly and close up. Tifa leaned in and upon closer inspection and knowing what she was looking for, she saw a very thin scar at the edge of the one adorning his right cheek. She could see the thin mark only now she knew what she was looking for - a hypertrophic scar which was a little jagged at the apparent entry point and much thinner at the exit point. The red swipe of colour covered it completely.

"I can see it, but only now I know it is there." She told him, reaching up with her free hand to gently trace it and they both seemed to realise how close their faces were to one another and they pulled back simultaneously and she let go of his arm as well. "I have a scar, too."

"Oh?" Reno knew she was embarrassed by the moment and did not try to press, but he was most definitely interested in her reaction to being so close to him. All he would have had to do was move forward an inch and he could have kissed her, but he knew it was better that he had not. 

"On my abdomen. I got it the day Sephiroth burned down Nibelheim." She continued and he frowned for a moment. He recalled the file on that event - Tifa had subsequently gone missing and presumed dead until she turned up as an AVALANCHE fighter in Midgar - and her father had been killed that day. It seemed they both bore physical as well as emotional scars from the day they lost a parent.

"You don't have to tell me about it if ya don' want to." He told her more gently and sincerely than she had ever heard from him before.

"Maybe I will some day." She told him and he nodded as he steered their feet towards the Dome Meadow. They should be able to manage the sparring now their food had gone down somewhat.

They never got that far as they crossed the street and went down an alley way shortcut to the Meadow and a would-be thief jumped out at them and rather foolishly put a rusty knife to Tifa's neck.

"Gimme yer walle' or yer girl gets i'." He snarled at Reno, only then to grunt with pain as Tifa shifted her weight, wrapped her arm around the man and flipped him face-first into the pavement, loosing one of the man's remaining teeth on impact.

"You really wanna try robbin' a _Turk_?" Reno taunted and snapped out his mag-rod, but his blood boiled that they had dared threaten Tifa. They would never have succeeded, Tifa was far too good at self-defence and she did not need him to step in to help her - but he would anyway because he was furious.

He advanced on the prone and dazed man, only to realise that he had an accomplice who was going for Tifa. Before he registered what was happening, the materia pulled at him and he darted between them, seemingly it had a 'Cover' aspect to it as well and he took the blow meant for Tifa, but he hardly noticed it as it was so feeble an attempt and he electrocuted the accomplice and turned, but Tifa was not there.

"Tifa?!" He called out, panicked.

"I'm here." She stepped out from behind cover in the alleyway. "I guess we figured out something else about these things. I got a Speed Plus as well."

"Cover." He nodded, bending down and snapping out a length of zip wire from his pocket and tying up the two prone men.

"It feels like it isn't pulling at me any more though."

"Me neither."

"Do you think it means we have worked out everything about them?"

"Dunno much about materia, but I guess it makes sense. Kinda." He shrugged. That was outside his wheelhouse. The two knocked out morons on the floor were much more his lane. "Look, ya may as well go back. I'll stay and deal with these idiots."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Yer mates'll be worried abou' yeh. I got this."

"Thank you, Reno. For a lovely night." She stepped in and seemed to hesitate for a moment, then stepped back and walked away, leaving him utterly baffled. Had she wanted to...no. No, of course not. _She_ was Tifa Lockhart and _he_ was Reno Sinclair. He needed to stop being as much of an idiot at the dazed pair at his feet and he snapped out his PHS and notified the local constabulary to come book them for attempted theft and for attempted assault. He applied a normal potion to fix the minor damage as well.

Once that had been taken care of and Tifa would have returned without him (something he figured would be prudent after what Rude had said), he decided he was too pent up with energy and feelings and he needed to go blow off steam. His steps took him in the direction of Newall to go get a drink at that little club he visited last time he needed to unwind and forget about...things.


	7. The children of the Advent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We have no certainty of where they will strike, but our best educated guess is they will attack the Dome Meadow as that is where you were all encased, it is believed to be the site of the Sector Five church _and_ it is the source of the Lifestream Water that combated the Geostigma. It could also be as simple as wherever Cloud is, the attack will be." Lucrecia stated. Rufus or Tseng would normally have done this, but they were away over the rim and being the rear guard for the evacuees and Lucrecia seemed the best suited as she had been investigating what was going on with Vincent and Chaos. Plus, Reno was the de facto head of the Shin-Ra faction and not everyone would be willing to listen to his analysis and orders in the AVALANCHE group.
> 
> They went to the Meadow and met the others who arrived in the Shera airship parked outside and they fanned out, ready for whatever was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next are the ones that warranted 90% of the tagged warnings. Violence and character death.

Two weeks had passed since the dinner Tifa and Reno had shared at the little Costan restaurant and two hapless idiots had attempted to assault and rob two of the best fighters in Neo Midgar, if not the whole Planet.

The pair had only built upon their friendship and he was starting to notice that she was seeking him out for company as much as he was to her and he was unsure what it meant. He did not do feelings or relationships or anything like that and he certainly never got _friendly_ with someone he spent that much time with in his day-to-day.

They had been meeting up almost every night at the remains of the crystal tree and Cloud seemed to materialise there as often, breaking up whatever conversation or sparring session they were having and his attitude towards Reno was cooling again considerably.

Barret had moved out (thankfully) and Marlene had gone with him to his little apartment two blocks from the New Leaf Orphanage so she would still be near to her friends and especially to Denzel. Vincent spent most of his time in Lucrecia's lab and Reno very much suspected that the room he was supposedly occupying was empty most nights.

Cid had returned with Shera to Rocket Town after dropping passengers off that wanted to either visit or return to that continent, Cait Sith was still with Reeve and all but inert as it waited for repairs. Nanaki had returned to Cosmo Canyon to see it for himself and Yuffie had taken the opportunity to visit Wutai and was due back the next morning with Nanaki on Cid's return trip.

Cloud and Tifa had temporarily moved in the previous week to the local inn as they had space and they had decided they did not want to freeload at Shin-Ra HQ. Tifa had even requested a meeting with Rufus to see if he would bankroll her to purchase a building and renovate it into a bar-slash-home for her to run like she had the Seventh Heaven and he had agreed without official interest - but with a percentage of profits going forward and she had agreed to those terms. All she needed to do was select a location that suited her and she and Cloud had visited several empty places and had narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities.

Cloud had decided he wanted to travel and had picked up a couple of odd jobs around and was saving up for a new motorbike thinking he could make some Gil Credits by doing deliveries on his trips, but he was also chewing over the idea in his head. He had hoped he could convince Tifa to travel with him, but it seemed she had designs of remaining in Neo Midgar and putting down roots. She had even raised the possibility of adopting Denzel with him, which had surprised him.

She met Reno that night with a huge smile on her face that he could not tear his eyes from even though it made his stomach wobble to look on such a vision and he had to tell himself to stop being stupid over Tifa Lockhart.

"What's got ya so chipper?" He asked, intrigued.

"I just put in an offer on the perfect location for my new bar! Its got a great space downstairs, a small office for Cloud's delivery service and two spare bedrooms - which means we'd have room for Denzel, too." She enthused and his heart squeezed at that 'we'. She meant Cloud, of course. "Its not far from that little Costan place you took me to. I would not have thought of that part of the city without you, so thank you."

"Welcome." He said, feeling happy for her but also thinking maybe it was for the best. He had realised that he _like_ -liked Tifa and that he needed to face that fact head on to get over it and get back to his usual flirty ways and bed hopping. He was much more at ease with that lifestyle.

"Ready?" She asked, following her word with a quick fist and she smirked cheekily at him as he dodged, she knew that he was fast enough to evade her and she liked to test his reflexes a lot during these sessions and she certainly kept him on his toes.

They bobbed and weaved, punched and feinted, Tifa backflipped away from his harder attacks and he used his speed to evade hers - fast as she was, he was faster and by the time they had built up a good sweat by pushing one another to their limits, both chests were heaving for breath and they started to laugh, their fists unclenching and returning to their sides.

"Walk ya back?" He offered and she nodded. He listened to her extol the virtues of the place she planned to renovate and turn into her new Seventh Heaven - apparently part of the perfection was its needing a little facelift. Not so much as to be a huge and expensive job, but just enough to make it feel like her own.

She told him about the suppliers and furniture wholesalers she had made contact with and had plans to order in stock once the renovations were almost complete and it had plenty of space for visiting friends to stay without needing to book at the inn. He listened with a small and genuine smile on his lips as she got excited and her eyes glimmered with plans of future happiness at her new home to be. Just as they reached the end of the street for the inn, Reno's PHS lit up and rang, so he picked it up.

"Reno, reports of Sephiroth and three silver haired men boarding a vessel at Costa del Sol two hours ago and headed for Junon. This has been independently verified." Reno's face paled and he gestured for Tifa to lean in so she could hear Tseng's report and her happy expression slid right off her face as she took in the words. "The chances of him attacking anywhere but Neo Midgar are very slim and Reeve is already readying Junon for him in case he attacks there."

"Sir." Reno confirmed he understood.

"Get back to HQ for full briefing. If Ms. Lockhart is with you, bring her also." Tseng hung up and Reno felt a smidge embarrassed that it was assumed she would be with him - especially as she actually _was_.

They headed to the inn first and grabbed Cloud who was just finishing up his dinner and the three hurried to HQ. Tifa called Barret on the way and sent a message to Cid and the others telling them to get to Neo Midgar as soon as possible in the morning.

 _Be there in five hours. Yuffie's already here and we'll grab Nanaki on the way. - Cid_ was the reply she got moments later.

It was a quick briefing where they decided to evacuate the city and the next few hours were dedicated to overseeing the mandatory evacuation of the city and sending them to Kalm. Kalm's authorities were notified and were not happy about it, but Rufus cheerfully told them he could leave his people in situ and come himself with AVALANCHE. The thought they might draw Sephiroth to Kalm after them like a moth to a flame had them throwing the doors open to the evacuees.

"Boss, you should go with them." Reno said and Rufus thought for a moment and agreed.

"I will be little help in a fight without full use of my legs, so I will only be a hindrance. Do Shin-Ra proud." He told the Turks.

"Sir, I will go with you in case he follows." Tseng countered and Rufus nodded. The others headed for bed though they were wired by the news and it was hard to sleep but they all knew they stood no chance if not rested against Sephiroth alone, let alone four opponents.

Rufus and Tseng were in the last group to leave (and threatened suitably over the safety of Marlene by Barret), the pair and several Shin-Ra employees putting up defences in case Sephiroth won and followed them to Kalm to try to stop him in his tracks. Lucrecia refused to evacuate, stating that she wanted to see how their opponents fought and analyse it to see if she could decipher any way to help.

The remaining fighters and Lucrecia awoke, showered and ate breakfast and readied themselves for the inevitable fight. Reeve had radioed just past dawn and stated that Sephiroth and the other unknown three had all blasted through Junon's defences like it was paper and killed any who got in their way but otherwise simply left town and were speeding across the former wastes towards Neo Midgar.

"We have no certainty of where they will strike, but our best educated guess is they will attack the Dome Meadow as that is where you were all encased, it is believed to be the site of the Sector Five church _and_ it is the source of the Lifestream Water that combated the Geostigma. It could also be as simple as wherever Cloud is, the attack will be." Lucrecia stated. Rufus or Tseng would normally have done this, but they were away over the rim and being the rear guard for the evacuees and Lucrecia seemed the best suited as she had been investigating what was going on with Vincent and Chaos. Plus, Reno was the de facto head of the Shin-Ra faction and not everyone would be willing to listen to his analysis and orders in the AVALANCHE group.

They went to the Meadow and met the others who arrived in the Shera airship parked outside and they fanned out, ready for whatever was coming.

An hour after they were situated, Sephiroth and the three roared into sight and smashed through the other entrance to the Meadow, tearing up the flowers under their roaring motorbike wheels. The trio with him all had silver hair and the youngest looking and nearest to Sephiroth resembled him the closest and had cruelty in his otherwise handsome features. The next had long hair though not as long as Sephiroth himself and seemed to possess a sort of maniacal allure and the last was much beefier and he looked strong enough to pose a threat to the melee fighters of the expanded group.

They dismounted and walked menacingly towards the group, Elena resting a gentle and steadying hand on Lucrecia's back before lifting her gun to protect the woman who was looking on her son in the flesh for the first time since she had given birth to him all those years past.

"Cloud. We have not finished our dance." Sephiroth teased, his cat-like eyes flashing with his madness as he looked on the spiky-haired blond - who Reno noted looked like he was resigned but ready for anything Sephiroth might dole out.

"I'll finish you once and for all." Cloud growled back. "No more coming back."

"Overconfidence will destroy you." Sephiroth retorted and Cloud gripped his sword, then he looked over at the three dressed in Turk suits and grinned evilly. "Even having Turks as extra allies will not save you. Where is your friend?"

"You failed t' kill him, ya freaky silver-haired fuck." Reno snapped at him, bristling at the reference to when Sephiroth had stabbed Tseng at the Temple of the Ancients on Rolling Rock and completely uncaring of the fact that said person's mother was able to hear him. Sephiroth laughed at him.

"Ah yes, I remember you and your mouth. I will enjoy killing you later, but you are not worth any more of my interest right now." He turned back to Cloud and gestured at the geyser of Lifestream Water that had never stopped flowing since the day it had first spewed forth and cured Rufus of his geostigma.

“A Lifestream fountain. It's a miracle of nature.” He grinned at Cloud as his trio of warriors moved slightly behind him, loose and ready to spring into action at the first hint from Sephiroth to go. "Do you recall when I taught you and Zack about materia?"

"Shut up, Sephiroth. I've had enough of your nonsense." Cloud snapped, memories of finding his mother dead at the hands of this madman he had once revered as a hero and an idol to look up to. Sephiroth flicked the Masamune out.

"We are entwined. You will never be rid of me." With that, the trio sprang into action and as Sephiroth and Cloud flew at one another, the trio spread out amongst the others.

The first one was engaged by Nanaki and Yuffie, the pair protecting each other from the kid's dual sword. The long-haired one pulled out two revolvers and a spray of bullets cut Vincent, Reno and Cid off from the others. The big muscular one closed the distance between himself and Tifa and Rude, Barret situating himself between Elena and Lucrecia and the melee fighters, sending in helpful bullets wherever needed as the long-range tank he was.

Elena used her gun sparingly but ensured none of the antagonists here could get at Lucrecia, who was watching and making notes on her PHS as quickly as she could in case they needed them later on. Sephiroth and Cloud were moving too quickly for her to analyse their movements, especially as she was not proficient in any fighting skills or forms - but someone else could hopefully make something of it.

Nanaki took a painful cut from the wicked blade to his left haunch protecting Yuffie from the blow as her Conformer arced its way back to her. She used the bought moments to cast a restore on him and she caught her weapon and swung it around backhanded to ward the kid off.

"Kadaj!" The long haired one called, the kid - Kadaj - jumping back and Yuffie took the bullet fired in the right thigh and screamed in pain, swearing violently enough that even Reno would have been impressed at the choice of language had he heard it.

Kadaj was fast, agile and could have kept up with Cloud himself were Sephiroth not busy engaging the blond swordsman himself and he was too much for the pair to handle; but they kept going even though he was whittling them down faster than they could heal, dual slice wounds appearing all across their bodies and bleeding freely as they tried to ward him off and heal - getting in hits on him seemed like a pipe dream.

"Doctor..."

"Go." Elena did not need telling twice and she left the doctor's side, knowing Barret could cover and she ran to aid Nanaki and Yuffie and a well-timed and aimed shot made Kadaj abort an attack mid-swing and jump back, saving Nanaki's life as the dual blade Souba would have caught his jugular had it connected.

"Thank you." He growled, jumping back into the fray to block any route to Yuffie as Elena ripped a hi-potion from her belt and tossed it at the ninja, who was cradling a broken wrist.

Nanaki howled and stars swirled around him, coalescing into a red light that looked like the tail of a comet and it slammed into Kadaj and knocked him back and onto one knee. He was soon up again though and running directly at Elena...

As Kadaj was brutally taking down Yuffie, Elena and Nanaki despite their efforts, the long-haired one was loosing a hail of bullets to interrupt the attacks from Reno and Cid. Vincent was returning fire and though he was good, the Sephiroth goon was not doing so well against his three as Kadaj was against his. Cid swung his spear in a perfectly timed attack as the kid avoided an electricity attack from Reno's weapon and a bullet from Vincent and he sliced a nasty gash along his exposed trailing leg as he tried to avoid all three attacks simultaneously. Reno reangled his weapon and smashed the taser tip of his mag-rod into the wound and discharged an electricity attack right into the damaged flesh, leaving behind a horrible charred smell that was not quite human.

A pained yelp came from Elena, a scream from Yuffie and a harrowing howl from Nanaki and Kadaj leaped in, sword first to protect the pressured silver-haired man.

"Yazoo!" Reno did not care what these bastards were called, he just wanted them dead and no more threat to anyone. If they could not stop them here, all the effort that they had put into survival and rebuilding their lives would be for naught and he was not about to allow that. No matter what it took.

Reno rolled back and avoided Souba as Yazoo lifted the Velvet Revolvers and fired a hail of bullets at Vincent and the two gun fighters peeled off together, no one else stupid enough to get in the way and only end up caught in the crossfire. Barret was preventing anyone getting back to the heavily wounded trio and protecting Lucrecia as well as adding in helpful bursts of fire to aid their side as and when needed from his vantage point.

Cid jumped in where Reno had been moments after Souba had passed through and he stabbed down with force, grazing Kadaj but it pushed the kid back and Reno jumped to his feet and let off three EM Mines to keep the pair within strike range unless they wanted to risk being shocked by them.

He heard Yuffie crying out a healing spell and Elena hissing in pain as her bones reknit magically. Thankful that he knew at least two of them were alive - he had not heard Nanaki - he was able to focus. He could not bear it if something happened to Elena or Rude - or Tifa.

Tifa herself was backflipping out of range as the big beefy one punched the ground spraying clumps of sod everywhere, enhanced by that spiked weapon he wore on his wrist. Rude swung his leg around and connected with the melee fighter, a Spinning Axe Kick that hurt him but did not do anywhere near the damage any non-JENOVA clone would take.

Tifa landed and bounced twice, then smashed into the man with a Star Shower that definitely rang his bell, but failed to take him out. He lifted his weapon and slammed it into Rude, the Turk grunting in pain as some sort of energy charge got released into him. 

"Oh no ya fuckin' don't!" Reno yelled as Rude landed heavily on the ground and twitched in pain, an EM Flail wrapping around the man's arm and yanking him back with an electric shock. As Reno detached the flail, Tifa swooped in with an Overpower and smashed him back to the floor.

"Loz!" Yazoo called out and shot Reno, who could not evade in time and he grunted in pain and grit his teeth as the bullet passed through his midriff. It had luckily missed any vital organs, but it stung like crazy and his vision blurred a little. He got up, bleeding heavily and used a Flashstrike to close the distance to the shooter and he smashed into Yazoo with the anger and ferocity of a wounded predator.

Tifa used her materia to deliver a Deathblow attack on Loz and Reno followed up with a Mime of her action from his paired materia and damaged Yazoo enough to stagger him. 

Cid and Nanaki - who proved to be healed also - descended on the staggered Yazoo and Yuffie sprang close and unleashed an All Creation attack on him as soon as the others had jumped back from their attacks. Kadaj was unable to help as Barret, Elena and Vincent were keeping him busy dodging their hail of combined bullets.

Sephiroth and Cloud were paying no attention to the fighting around them, their blades and gravity-defying acrobatics spinning too fast for anyone to even attempt to aid Cloud in the fight.

"All I got left!" Yuffie called to Reno, who was holding his wound and trying to apply pressure to slow the bleeding and then she cast a low-level Protect on him. It was better than nothing and he gave her a nod of appreciation before she had to dodge an attack from Yazoo again.

"Rude!" Tifa called out and Reno's attention was forcibly dragged back to the other fight. Rude had lost his sunglasses and a horrible black eye was blooming on his face already, surrounded by a nasty gash.

"I'm okay." He called back and dropped, swinging his leg and trying to trip Loz; but the other man jumped it and smirked wickedly and turned to Tifa.

Reno's heart threatened to stop and as his eyes took in the tell tale blue shimmer he recognised as the kind he used when powering up around the man's weapon, his special materia glowed and kicked into play. The Speed Plus hooked into him, the Cover did likewise and he activated Flashstrike and shot across the meadow faster than the eye could see. Rude was injured as was Tifa though to a lesser extent and they were winning - but this attack was too much. Reno's instincts screamed at him and then it was just him screaming in agonising pain as he took the full force of the hit intended for Tifa.

A horrific and sickening crunching crack echoed around and even the other fighters looked over to see Reno's body bend in an unnatural way. He was still bleeding from his gun shot wound and he was convulsing with the not-quite-lightning attack that was ravaging his slight frame.

"RENO!" Tifa screamed in anguish as he hit the floor heavily, looking broken with blood streaming from his middle in three wounds. One a gun shot, two puncture wounds. "Hold on!"

Reno barely registered what was happening, in too much pain as he was and he did not see both Tifa and Rude glance at each other, nod and set themselves and then in synchronous movement, launch flying kick attacks at Loz from both sides. He was unable to evade them both and another set of horrible cracking sounds echoed around, Rude had taken his spine and Tifa had aimed for his neck.

"LOZ!" Kadaj and Yazoo screamed in grief as Loz flopped to the ground and little green lights lifted from his body before it faded, killing the yellow flowers where his irreparably broken body fell and dissipated.

Tifa did not stop to savour the moment and the diminished threat and she dropped to her knees beside Reno and tried to cast a Restore as he coughed up blood, but she had to roll out of the way before being able to complete the spell as Yazoo focused his attention on them and fired. Her spell tried to hook into Reno and brought his shattered rib bones up to alignment, but when her attention got pulled away, they slipped and fused incorrectly. 

Kadaj turned with a snarl to face the others, seemingly incensed and channelling his rage into his attacks and he was such a whirling dervish that they were unable to get past. 

Reno lay dying and bleeding out on the ground, surrounded by those yellow flowers and his hazy mind recalled Tifa telling him they were given by reuniting lovers. They smelled lovely. They seemed to be beckoning him somewhere...

"Reno, don't close your eyes!" He heard a deep voice he recognised and made him feel safe. That voice he had known since he was a pre-teen. Who was it? The smell of three-milly stew came to his mind and he smiled. Ah yes, he needed to wake up - Mama Polly and Rude were making his favourite dish for dinner. She would be upset if he was late.

As Reno hallucinated, Tifa and Rude took significant damage each from an enraged Yazoo, Rude deliberately taking a painful hit to allow Tifa to step back and chuck a haphazard regen over Reno to try to slow the bleeding. He felt a little stronger and it sounded like the neighbours were fighting again. No, it was not the neighbours. It was his parents.

His father had come to visit again and he hated it when that happened. He wished they could move away, somewhere none of Corneo's men knew where and no one knew who they were for word to get back to Sector Six. There was yelling, there was the sound of something breaking and a woman grunting in pain. He needed to get up, he needed to defend her...

"Reno..."

"Mum!" He called out, trying to reach for her, but his arm would not move and he felt nothing. No pain, no movement, just no response.

"Reno, I'm here." The beautiful red haired and blue eyed woman seemed to be surrounded by a hazy green and white. In her place, Tifa dropped to her knees and gently cradled his head, pouring a Hi-Potion through his lips and his mother stroked his face.

"Mum, I thought you were dead." He told her.

"Reno, stay with me." Tifa told him, but he closed his eyes, feeling confusion and a wave of extreme pain roll through him. She had to let go of him as Yazoo had got past Rude and another bullet hit Reno's prone form, piercing his right thigh and lodging within.

"I'll stay with you, Mum. I'll protect you." He promised though his voice was weak, but then his mother faded and another woman stepped up. He knew her. What was her name again?

"A lot of people seem to think I am their Mother these days." She said, gently. "Reno, it isn't your time yet."

"I know you..?" He asked, trying to place her.

"You do, but it is not time for us to be reunited nor is it time for your to be with your Mother, Reno. You have someone else you want to protect first."

"I...Tifa?" He asked as the fighting raged on around him and no one else seemed to see the pretty woman with the green eyes standing right there in their midst as his mind started to clear.

"It is not Destiny's Will for you to die now. Hold on and she will save you as you saved her. I must go now, but remember what I told you. The two of you will be a powerful combination."

"Aerith?" He remembered the woman's name, she smiled and faded away and when he looked up, the green and white haze faded completely and he was looking up into the worried red eyes of Tifa Lockhart and she was casting cure spells on him. He did not know what was happening or why it was all taking so long, but she had to keep darting away from him and coming back to throw another spell over him. 

Everything was reknitting and he was starting to feel more lucid again, but he felt _off_ somehow. The cures were not doing as much work as they normally would as Tifa kept getting interrupted as she tried to concentrate.

" _Oh_ , where did you find this strength?" He heard Sephiroth tease Cloud. That's right - Sephiroth had attacked. What had happened then? He could not recall just now.

"Like I'm going to tell you." Cloud snapped back, but then Sephiroth knocked him back with the Masamune as he spotted the non-fighter in the Meadow. There was a woman there, watching and tapping away on a PHS device. She looked like _him_.

As Sephiroth landed and stalked towards her, the two with him disengaged from their fights and backed him up, the others swarming around Reno and the others, all using up their magic reserves to heal each other. Reno felt much better - except he could not stand; he could not feel his feet at all. He also could not feel it when Barret cast the last of his magic on him with a weak cure but managed to pull the lodged bullet from his thigh and it dropped into the grass beside him as the wound sealed behind it.

"I'm so sorry, Reno. I could not concentrate long enough to do it properly." Tifa apologised with a lump in her throat and Reno realised his bones had reknitted incorrectly and he would likely never walk again.

"Tifa, you _saved his life_." Elena told her. "That's more important."

"Are _you_ okay?" He asked, now his memory was coming back and he remembered what had happened and why he had done it. He could deal with life-changing injuries as long as she was alive. She was needed by so many, by the Planet itself...by _him_.

"Yes. Why did you do that?" She asked, tears running down her face but he could not reply as their attention was all on Sephiroth and Lucrecia and what the insane man would do next. Vincent moved closer, standing just to the side of the woman as she confronted the son she had borne yet never held.

"Who are you?" He asked, he knew everyone else here by sight at least but not her.

"I'm your mother." She told him simply.

"You are not JENOVA. JENOVA is my mother." He said, sounding confused by that reply.

"JENOVA cells were injected into me as you formed in my womb. I am your human mother, Lucrecia Crescent. You need to stop this, Sephiroth. I can help you get better."

"Whether your words are lies created to deceive me - or the truth that I have sought all my life...it makes no difference." He snapped and then to everyone's horror, Masamune was drawn back and then pierced Lucrecia's heart cleanly. "You will rot, traitor."

"You cannot kill me like this, my son." She told him, the others confused as to how she had not been killed by that. "Those with JENOVA cells do not die so easily."

"Then I will remove them from you." He told her and Vincent lunged forward to stop him, but was too late. Corrupted Lifestream burst from the ground, changing the yellow flowers purple as it passed through them and enveloped the woman, forcibly yanking the JENOVA cells from her body and once they were gone, the mortal blow her son had given her took the light from her mortal-again eyes and she slumped the same way Aerith once had as she had also been impaled on this sword.

As the corrupted Lifestream lingered, the Protomateria failed and Chaos burst forth from Vincent in his grief and he loosed a Satan Slam on Sephiroth, Kadaj and Yazoo, knocking the man and his weapon from the deceased woman who had granted him life.

As he stood, Sephiroth also pulled the JENOVA cells from where Loz had fallen to boost his own power and he turned to face Chaos and laughed.

"I will not kill you, Chaos. I have need of you yet."

Cid had taken enough damage to be able to summon and he weighed up allowing Tifa to bring out Carbuncle (though he was unsure she had enough magical strength left after the repeated curatives) versus his bringing Phoenix - one look between Tifa and Chaos-Vincent sealed the deal and he summoned, bringing forth Phoenix...but it was in vain. Lucrecia was _gone_ -gone like Aerith had been and Phoenix's power was not enough to bring her back. He felt for his friend, wishing his attempt had succeeded. The fires of Phoenix Flame roared across the silver haired men and hurt them further as the repeated Satan Slams kept them occupied.

Chaos roared, feeding on Vincent's raw shock and grief and channelling it into Satan Slam after Satan Slam and the trio were forced to retreat and regroup as they could not stand up to the WEAPON in this state as well as the Turks and AVALANCHE who were stirring from their own injuries and shock and were converging on the silver-haired three, looking to end it here and now. 

Chaos was not yet sated and he turned to those still standing, Cloud swinging his Ultima Weapon around to ward Chaos off as the demon tried to close with Rude and Cid. They were all depleted in stamina, magical energy, wounded by the loss of Lucrecia so brutally and all in sore need of medical attention; but they brought their weapons to bear to bring Chaos back under control.

Tifa, Rude and Elena formed a triangle around Reno, who could not move and was a sitting duck so they formed a protective barrier as the others focused on taking Chaos down without killing Vincent in the process.

Yuffie's Conformer twisted in, the girl following it and slashing Chaos as she caught it before cartwheeling away from a physical counter attack; Barret unloaded a Maximum Fury in Yuffie's vacated place and hit Chaos' arm as he tried to hurt the ninja.

Cloud swept in with perfect timing as the bullets ceased and sliced into Chaos' wing and injuring the demon as Cid warded Chaos away from Nanaki, who was slicing it with his claws. Blow after blow came in from the group who were so in tune with one another's fighting styles and skills that they looked like a well-oiled machine.

They got knocked down with a Satan Slam, so Rude knocked Chaos flat with a Haymaker as Elena remained on guard over Reno, Tifa channelling her chi and smashing Chaos out of Vincent with her Rise and Fall.

Vincent was physically bruised and looked like he had been through hell, but it was nothing compared to the haunted look in his red eyes.

"We need to get everyone medical attention." Elena stated, snatching up her PHS. "Sir - Sephiroth has retreated. We have several injured and one casualty. Send the medical team in."

"Understood." Tseng's voice came over the receiver as he ordered the medical team back to Neo Midgar - having stationed them in a closer location than Kalm as they had expected there to be injuries from such an encounter.

"Who is down?" Came Rufus' voice, but Elena did not respond for a long moment and he sounded very concerned. "Elena?"

"We have many injured. Doctor Crescent did not survive." Elena told him.

"What else?" He could tell there was something she was not telling him.

"Reno is down. He's hurt bad." She relayed, voice quiet and shaking with emotion. "Really bad."


	8. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As everyone else was tucking into the food, Yuffie still loudly extolling the virtues of Rude's cooking, Reno felt he could not ask what in the name of Ifrit's fiery arsehole was going on around him and he dug into the amazing-looking dish defiantly without aid despite the physical pain. It catapulted him back to his childhood as the flavours burst upon his tongue and he realised Tifa had included freshly cracked black pepper in the dish. The only other person he had known to do that had been his mother and it balanced the sweetness perfectly with its smokier flavour profile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little shorter than usual because it got really long and I have decided to cut it in half. Therefore the 2-chapter warning from the last chapter is extended to 3.

"What is the prognosis, doctor?" Rufus asked the concerned-looking doctor with the furrowed brow as he stood beside Reno's bed. The doctor paused a moment, polished his glasses absently, considering and then replaced them and stated sombrely

"He will live, thanks to the healing applied to him - he certainly would have perished if not for that; however, he has healed incorrectly in several places. He will not walk again and will be in severe pain for the rest of his life. We can, of course, put together pain medication." The doctor told Rufus and the other Turks who were arrayed in the room. Tifa was also in there and no one had bothered to question it, tears were rolling freely but silently down her cheeks at the diagnosis.

"If there is anything you can do, the cost is no barrier." Rufus told the doctor, but he was interrupted by Reno himself.

"No need, Boss. I ain't gettin' healed, but its ok. I knew wha' I were doin'." He sounded exhausted but his voice was firm.

A small sob sounded from the corner and they realised it had come from Tifa. A slightly awkward moment passed and then the Turks, Rufus and the doctor looked at each other and silently filed out to leave the pair alone together.

"It ain't yer fault." He said quietly, just knowing that was what was distressing her and she looked up at him and moved over to his bedside and rested her hand on his bandaged one. He was in bad shape and the healing spells and the doctors had done what they could, but he needed time to rest and let his body recover from everything it had been through - the healing had been almost as bad as the original injuries.

"It _is_ my fault. You were protecting me. Why? Why did you do it?" Her voice got slightly angry and demanding as she looked at him despite the tears still shimmering in her eyes and down her cheeks in wet trails.

"I dunno, I just knew in that spli' second that I could stop him. Maybe that's why Aerith sent me this materia - to protect ya. I were the on'y one fast enough ta pull it off."

"Aerith would _never_ sacrifice your ability to walk just to protect me." She averted her eyes, seemingly finding it difficult to see him incapacitated like this.

" _She_ didn'. _I_ chose ta do it in that moment, yeah? She just sen' me the way ta do it." He told her, twisting his wrist despite it screaming in pain at him and he wrapped his fingers tenderly around her hand, forcing her to look directly at him in surprise. She curled her own fingers tenderly around his in response.

"Reno..." She looked like she was about to lean down and kiss him, more than that - she had moved forward and down a little. She looked so beautiful in that moment, cheeks bright with a blush, red eyes sparkling with gratitude mixed with sadness, shining trails of tears catching the light and her other hand tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear; so much so that speaking as he did made something twist horribly in Reno's gut. 

He _wanted_ her to kiss him. He wanted to kiss her back. He wanted to bury his fingers in her hair and close the distance and taste her for the first time and then never let her go.

"Don' do it if ya just feelin' guilty." He warned her and she stopped, looking startled and she pulled back and disentangled her fingers from his. He missed her already.

"I...Reno, I..." She lost her words and looked down at the floor.

"Look, you are an amazin' woman and if ya _really_ wan'ed ta kiss Reno of the Turks, I'd never stop ya - but I wan' ya ta be sure ya want this. Ya wan' _me_."

"I...I guess I don't know." She admitted, though something shifted in her eyes, like she might be processing all this and maybe coming to some sort of realisation; but the two of them would have so much to face even without Sephiroth, his two remaining silver-haired goons and Reno's new disability. Her friends would mostly hate even the notion of them and he did not want to come between her and her friends. He knew he was a bit of a little shit, but he was not _that_ bad and brazen. Her friends were her family.

"I should let you rest." She decided and he watched her leave the room, chastising himself for being a better person than he wanted to be, he had wanted to damn it all and draw her to him and for her to be unquestionably his. Before he could stew on it for too long, Rude came in and looked at him.

"Don't say it." Reno snapped, but Rude stayed silent as usual and settled in the corner and just let Reno slide into a much-needed natural healing sleep.

A week had since passed, Reno was entirely out of danger now his body had recovered from both the damage and the healing and the toll both had taken on his slight frame, though pretty much every time he moved he was in varying degrees of pain. He was as stoic as he could be in front of others and popping heavy duty painkillers as soon as they were not looking. They all knew but did not comment and pretended not to see to help preserve his bruised ego. He had been discharged from the hospital area and was installed in a powered wheelchair just like Rufus had used, his Boss having secured one for him and telling him that he would still continue to draw a salary despite his current situation so he was at least secure financially speaking.

While he had been secluded in the hospital, Rufus had had one of the rooms in the ShinRa building speedily renovated to accommodate Reno's new wheelchair and a few alterations had been added to facilitate ease of movement for him in places such as in and out of bed or the shower. Reno had felt like quipping spitefully about it, annoyed, but he remembered Rufus also had these modifications in his own suite and he closed his mouth.

They threw him a little welcome home party and he was pleased to see Rude had made a fresh batch of his three-milly stew and he was touched when Tifa unveiled a fantastic-looking and smelling dessert she had made for them all - a dreamy-looking Banora White apple and Mideel raspberry cranachan. His memory tugged at him as another beautiful woman had once made this for him; it had been his favourite of his mother's desserts. They had not been able to afford the ingredients often - but when they could, she made it for him and he felt a lump in his throat rise at the memory. She had never failed to make it for his birthday, either.

"This is my favourite, thanks, Tifa." He said as nonchalantly as possible given the circumstances and company. He could not for the life of him figure out why Barret was here, though the more combative members of AVALANCHE had been almost friendly towards him since he had been admitted to the ward. Almost.

"I know, Rude told me." She explained and he tried to catch Rude's eye in query but the big man looked away. They had been talking about him? What else had Rude told her?

As everyone else was tucking into the food, Yuffie still loudly extolling the virtues of Rude's cooking, Reno felt he could not ask what in the name of Ifrit's fiery arsehole was going on around him and he dug into the amazing-looking dish defiantly without aid despite the physical pain. It catapulted him back to his childhood as the flavours burst upon his tongue and he realised Tifa had included freshly cracked black pepper in the dish. The only other person he had known to do that had been his mother and it balanced the sweetness perfectly with its smokier flavour profile.

"Gotta admit, I never though' the likes of the Turks'd ever put themselves between an innocent an' the big bad." Barret had huffed at him, then looked pained at giving anything even remotely close to a compliment to Reno and devoted himself to his dessert. Marlene (who had accompanied him as usual) beamed between the two. She liked the Turks, regardless of her father's prejudices and the knowledge of what they had done to Seven, but she was far more forgiving and accommodating than her adoptive father.

"Daddy, did you know that Reno and the others saved our lives three years ago?" Marlene trilled, looking delighted with herself and then with the choking noise that came out of Barret.

"Yeah," she continued as Cloud slapped Barret hard on the back and saved him from choking on his bite of cranachan "some nasty monsters came out of the old Wastes and started attacking people right by the orphanage. The Turks came and rescued Freddie, Ayla and Ursa from these shadow-monster things and got them inside safely. They all got hurt but they killed the monsters and Ms. Folia let us help look after them."

"You did a real nice job healing up my busted lip." Reno winked at her.

"And your fractured ribs and your broken foot." Marlene shot back cheerily, then got a thoughtful look on her face and looked Reno over with a critical eye.

"Well, I. Uh. Thanks. Fer savin' my girl an'...the others." Barret said drawing the gaze of everyone, sounding like he was forcing out every word of gratitude to one of the men who had dropped the plate on Seven centuries ago.

"How did you know what Loz was going to do?" Cloud asked and the room went quiet.

"I recognised the pre-attack. Just reacted, yeah?" Reno would have shrugged but it would hurt too much so he just put the shrug into his tone and he carefully kept his eyes from Tifa's gaze as he could just sense that she was looking at him intently.

"Right." Cloud replied, seemingly not sure how much he believed it but grateful nonetheless.

"Gawd, Tifa, this pudding is amazin'!" Yuffie yelled, seemingly at random and without reading the room; but as they were all getting to know each other, Reno found he suspected her of doing it on purpose to change the subject and lighten the mood. "I'd say what it is possibly better than, but we've got kiddies present."

"YUFFIE!" Barret yelled and she had a smug look on her face, confirming his suspicions that she had deliberately said it for shock value.

The rest of the evening passed in noisy amusement and he started to fear the growing friendship between Elena and Yuffie, though tempered somewhat by Tifa's presence. Tifa could still join in the silliness, but the pair were far more obnoxious together when Tifa was not in the room, even if adorably so. Elena was like the sister he had never had, so she got a free pass on being obnoxious at times. Yuffie was starting to inch towards that point also, by the looks of it.

They all started to file out for the night, Tifa sending a somewhat loaded look back at Reno as she was the last out, barring Rude who stayed behind with his friend. Reno was not sure what to make of it.

"Did'ya tell her about the black pepper in the cranachan?" Reno asked as Rude helped him into bed.

"No, I just told her it was your favourite when she said she wanted to make something for you for tonight." He admitted as he gently tucked his friend in, he and Elena were the only ones Reno allowed to do this. "That not something you normally put in it?"

"No. The only person I ever knew to do tha' was...me Mum."

"Oh." The pair looked at one another for a long moment, both remembering their mothers quietly.

"She likes you." Rude told him, looking down seriously at his prone partner...former partner? Reno did not want to dissect that right now, not when Tifa was the subject matter between them. Or ever.

"She don' know me." He retorted.

"Show her."

"Nah, yer alrigh'. I'd rather her just ge' over it, she jus' feels guilty over this is all." He gestured at his legs, though it was painful with his incorrectly reknitted arm bones.

"I don't believe that. Good night." Rude left before Reno could formulate a retort and he huffed and laid back against the pillow. He was not entirely helpless, but even basic things had become difficult or impossible due to his improperly reknitted bones and yet, he did not regret that split second decision. The trajectory, speed and power Loz had possessed would have likely killed Tifa and he could not allow that on his conscience. 

When had he grown a conscience? A traitorous part of his mind piped up that it had always been there; he had just ignored it and soaked it in booze, drugs and handsome bed mates.

Tomorrow. He would relieve her of her guilt and any latent feelings that guilt had inspired. He would set her free tomorrow. He slipped off to sleep with that thought.

The next day, he had been helped into the bath by Rude and the pair had enjoyed a breakfast on the balcony in the warm late morning sun and Rude had been telling Reno about the trip back, he had escorted Yuffie and Elena to Elena's place, Yuffie had accepted Elena's sofa for the night and Rude had wanted to ensure they were safe despite the fact they could both fight just as well as he could.

"...you don't like the ninja brat do ya?" Reno asked as the suspicion grew in his mind.

"No." Rude, however, blushed despite his denial.

"Ya fuckin' do! Ya like that ninja brat."

"She's too young for me anyway."

"Horseshit, she's _at least_ five hundred and twenty-three." Reno scoffed.

"You know what I mean." Rude replied and sipped his juice.

"Whatever. Don't do a 'me'." Reno replied and Rude raised an eyebrow. "Ain't you go' a job to go to?"

"Mmm." Rude looked like he wanted to say more but understood his partner was not in the mood and he cleaned up the breakfast detritus, made Reno's bed, wiped down the bath and cleaned the kitchen before he left, leaving Reno on the balcony soaking up the warm morning. Now was not the time to poke and upset him. He got embarrassed enough about Rude tidying up after him as it was (even though Rude had always tidied up after him, just not to the same degree).

A couple of hours after Rude had left (and been utterly stunned when Yuffie - dressed in a Turk suit - cheerfully said she had agreed with Rufus to stand in for Reno as his partner while they recruited someone long-term), Tifa knocked on Reno's door and he called that it was open.

He looked up and saw her framed in the doorway and he felt that same twist as he had when he had stopped her kissing him. It was not pleasant.

"We're going for a walk." Tifa announced and she took the handles of his wheelchair and started to steer him out of the apartment.

"Oi." He protested and initiated the power and applied the brakes. "I never said I were goin' out."

"You need to go outside sometimes, there is something I want to show you and I think we should talk." She replied.

"Fine." He groused and disengaged the brakes. Tifa wheeled him into the elevator, a smile on her face at this success that he could not see, and they descended and went out into the warm late morning air. "What ya takin' me to see?"

"I got the keys to the bar. I wanted you to be the first person I showed it to."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." She had a smile in her voice and he could not help but remember what Rude had said that very morning and decided to enjoy it and not poke.

She wheeled him down the street and towards the direction of her new bar and she chatted happily about the plans she had for it now she had the keys in her possession. She was more than aware that in the long term, ShinRa would make more from their deal than a more standard one, but in the short term, it would be easier to get on her feet and provide for her little constructed family and as she directed their stroll, she told Reno about all the ins and outs of it; with Reno occasionally giving her little insights and tips into how to deal with Rufus more effectively. She seemed to really appreciate the help and he felt a feeling of innocent pleasure sweep through him that he could still be useful to her even in his current state.

"Ta-da!" She called out and stopped the wheelchair, standing in front of a slightly dilapidated-looking building but it looked like a fairly simply fix to get it up to standard for living and working in. "Its been empty for a year and a bit, but no major damage and I can make her my own as we do her up."

She opened up and showed him around, giving him the tour of the area, it looked like she had already been in and swept it clean and tidied some things away, there was a pile of detritus neatly stacked and ready for removal near the door.

"Bit o' spit n polish and it'll look decent." He praised, thinking that she had actually done a really excellent job of finding this place and getting it at the price she had done.

"That's what I am hoping." She confirmed "I want it to have a nice, homely local tavern sort of feel to it. Get in some regulars and carve out a nice little spot."

They went through the place, Reno steering himself more often than not as Tifa understood without the words being spoken that though it hurt him to move around, he liked to keep some semblance of independence still. She showed him the wall she planned to knock through to make a more open-plan kitchen, with some sort of shatter-proof glass (in case of bar brawls) where she could cook and still keep an eye on the bar itself. She pointed out where the toilets were already located - thankfully the other side of the floor area - and then she showed him something on the wall.

"What's this?" He asked, it looked like a series of pulleys and gears.

"Its a lift. We actually used to have one concealed in the old Seventh Heaven. It was our hideout. This one will allow people up a floor if they cannot use the stairs."

"Ah." It was not just for him, he knew; Rufus still had issues with stairs and anyone old or very young would appreciate this, but something in him told him that it _was_ meant for him. On closer inspection, the gears looked new and the metal wiring was clean and free from dust or wear. Now he knew where most of the detritus by the door had come from. She had had this put in first - and then brought him here to see it first. She had done it for _him_.

He wheeled himself onto the square and Tifa joined him and engaged the mechanism and they were lifted up gently to the upper floors. This building had five floors - the basement storeroom, the bar area, the living space and home kitchen and then above were the bedrooms and bathrooms and then, on the top - a roof garden. Tifa showed him around everywhere, there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms for the residents to use and the roof garden was delightfully overgrown and needed some tending, but he kind of liked the patch of wilderness.

He had never much cared for the wilds, finding them a nuisance as a Midgar boy born-and-bred; but since their 'resurrection' and the erection of Neo Midgar, he was finding a taste for it - though he disliked anywhere over-manicured.

"Tifa, this place is amazin'. You'll make a real nice pub here." He told her as they looked out over the area. It was mostly a residential area but it had a lot of little restaurants and conveniences dotted around. 

"That is all I want. A nice little place to call mine and my friends around me." Time to bite the bullet. Rude _had_ urged him to let her know who he truly was, deep inside. He did not want her to reject him, but he wanted more desperately for her not to develop feelings for him and then find out down the line - that rejection would sting far more deeply.

"Am I one of those friends?" He asked, resisting the urge to look away and looking right into her soft red eyes.

"Of course, Reno. I did not think that was even in question."

"You hardly know me."

"I know enough."

"No. You don't." 

"I know you are a cocky little shit, Reno." She said and though he was not surprised at the swearing, her group swore almost as much as his did; it was more the look on her face as she said it. She was _smiling_. "I know you have done awful things. Things I would find it hard to ever forgive, had I not done awful things too. I have literally punched you in the face before and yet, even when we were fighting one another - I started to see you and the others differently. Maybe it was in Gongaga. Maybe it was in Wutai, probably Wutai, to be fair; but I _did_ start to see you differently. People can change."

"Not me. I shouldn't have this materia any more. I'm not a hero, I'm not even able to fight any more." He pulled off his materia-embedded band and made to hand it to her.

"I think it was meant for you." She turned his chair so that she could sit on a nearby chair and they were looking directly at one another now, her voice sounded sad and upset, she took the band, but placed it back on him. "I think you should keep it."

"I'm not worth it."

"Why do you keep saying that? Its not like you." 

"Because I'm a murderer, Tifa." He looked her directly in the eyes as he spoke.

"Reno, I know being a Turk means..."

"No," He cut her off "I'm a murderer. Its _why_ they were int'rested in me as a Turk in th' first place. Not assassin-for-hire, following-orders bullshit - an actual bona fide murderer."

"..." She paused and looked at him, confusion and sadness in her eyes. Here, then, would come her rejection. "Who?"

"I killed my own father."

"That's not something you just do. There was a reason behind it." She prodded him for more.

"He hurt my mother. Bad enough that she died from her injuries. I killed him for that."

"You said you were the youngest Turk ever hired. How old were you when you killed him?"

"Twelve."

"Do you think you can tell me what happened?"

"I'm not sure I wan' you t'hear it."

"You do want me to hear it, you've alluded to me not knowing you, to me needing to know what makes you up as a person. I think you need to leech this out of yourself. Tell me." 

"Okay, but I'll need a glass o' water. Its a long story."

"I'll get you one, then you tell me everything." She darted away to get it and he knew she was being quick in case he absconded, but he could hardly leave without her noticing anyway. It was time.

He would tell Tifa all about the day he tried and failed to protect his beloved mother for the last time and how he channelled that grief into an attack that would render him an orphan in the space of seconds. It had been the very worst day of his life, it remained so even now, but - it was time.


	9. Lay your head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It was not random, I said that there is nothing wrong with her; Miss Sinclair is with child." Aveila was not sure how Jono took the news as she seemed transported into an out of body experience as she got filled with dread. How was she going to feed another mouth? She could barely feed and house herself.
> 
> "I'm gonna have a son?" He asked and Aveila snapped back into the present. No matter what happened, the child was innocent in this and had not chosen their parentage. She would just have to do her best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a **really** tough chapter to write, harder even than I anticipated when plotting it out; most of the fic warnings apply here. This is heavily based around Don Corneo and his 'auditions' and all the horrible things implied therein. 
> 
> If you want to skip the flashback and right to the Reno/Tifa stuff, go to the second set of dashes. On a lighter note, it seemed apropos that the live version of 'baby, don't you break my heart slow' by Vonda Shepard started playing as I wrote the end of this. It made me chuckle when it started up!

He fell back into his memories, now never too far from the surface but easier to access again after his hallucinations at the Dome Meadow when he was teetering on the precipice between life and death. Tifa sat opposite him and he forced himself to look at her even though he wanted to look anywhere but as he regaled her with the story of the single worst day of his life.

"I guess I'd bet'er start at the beginnin'..."

\---

Don Corneo salivated as he looked over the three beauties that had been brought before him to select his 'bride' for the next night...or two, if she pleased him well enough. His offering was a shoo-in, Jono knew he had this one sewn up tight. The other two were very pretty, but this one was everything the Don liked rolled into one girl. She would get selected.

After she put up with the Don's attentions, she would be walking out with a lot of Gil in her pockets, enough to get her started up top-side; which was why any woman would ever even think of putting herself through this.

He himself had his eye on the slender redhead auditionee, her long ginger locks tumbling down her shoulders, the ends curling around her pert breasts and a few freckles smattered delicately along her cheekbones and a few were hinted at across her chest where the neckline dipped. She looked delicate and he was sure her calm demeanour was a façade, he noticed her right index finger twitched almost imperceptibly every time Don got close and eyed her over lasciviously. She was nervous and possibly frightened. He saw Ruluf eying him and the girl; that one was too smart for his own good and deadly with his two guns to boot. Luckily, Ruluf was too aloof to be in contention for the spot of Second - the Don used him more like a silent assassin than a Right Hand Man.

The only thing he would have to contend with would be Arturo, the man who had brought her in for the selection, but he was in higher favour with the Don than Arturo anyway and on top of that, he was making his selection of Jono's selected girl. They all knew the Don was looking for a new Right Hand Man since Fytus had got himself killed stupidly in a drunken brawl that turned deadly when a shiv had been drawn three weeks ago. Corneo had not said anything outright, but whomever pleased him the most tonight would likely be the winner of the little silent battle.

Jono knew it would be him. Arturo's threat would be all but nullified and Jono could claim the girl for his own.

"Oh hohoho, I choose this little chickadee!" Corneo trilled in front of the terrified-looking girl standing in front of Jono. "You can take the leftovers. Jono divide them up."

That was it, the Don took his selection to his boudoir and though it seemed a throwaway comment, those present in the room currently in the Don's employ knew that Jono was the new Right Hand Man from that moment on.

"Come on." Arturo grabbed for the girl.

"She comes wit' me. You can share the other one." Jono said almost nonchalantly and a silent battle of wills happened between the two men, but Arturo buckled and Jono smirked at him. He grabbed the wrist of the pretty redhead and opened the door to let the others out to the hallway and to the room they all shared - that Jono _used to_ share with them. Now, he took the pretty girl through a different door as Ruluf broke off and headed for the door. He never had been interested in the women brought here. Fytus' old room was his now and Jono intended to claim it tonight.

"He wants you." Jono told the girl "and he ain't very nice. I can protect ya."

"I..." The girl looked like she might actually have the sheer audacity to turn him down, but then she heard a muffled scream coming from the direction Arturo, the other reject and the various other lackeys had gone and her eyes went wide in fear. "You can? What about the other girl?"

"I jus' became the Don's new Second, yeah? Arturo won' dare touch what's mine, but he will be in a very bad mood tonigh'." 

"There nothing you can do for her, too?"

"Shut up before you talk yerself outta my protection." Jono told her, his hand coming up and he backhanded her as he spoke. The girl hesitated, touching her hands to the newly bruised cheek, but her eyes slid over to the wall in the direction of the other unfortunate reject (not that being picked was a whole lot better) and she nodded. She knew there was no way she could help the other girl, she just internally called on Shiva to protect her fellow reject if she could, though it was worthless in real terms as she did not possess a summon materia.

Jono smirked and laid her on the bed and celebrated his new promotion. The next morning, the girl was being shown out of the building when she saw the other reject and hurried over to her.

"Are you all right?" She gasped and the other girl looked up at her with a sarcastic glint in her eye and a busted lip and grazed skin. "You know what I mean. Have you got anywhere to go?"

"No." The girl whispered, seeing that the ginger girl also had a bruise blossoming on her own cheek and guessed how she had received it and feeling a bit more charitable towards her.

"Come with me, you can stay at mine until you get healed up and sorted out. I just wish I could have helped ya last night."

"You got that tryin' ta help me, didn't you?"

"Yes, but..."

"You tried." The girl touched her hand and the two went to head out of the building, Jono stood there and passed them a handful of Gil each - far less than they would have received if they had been picked by the Don. The girls ignored the insult and took the money - they both needed it.

"Fer yer time." Jono smirked at them. "Yo, what's yer name?"

"Anne Millerson."

"Not you." He snapped at the girl.

"Aveila Sinclair." The ginger girl told him and he nodded.

"Migh' look ya up." He told her and she just nodded back and led Anne away.

"Not sure who got off worse there, you or me. At least none of these creeps are going to follow me." Anne said, grimly.

"I guess at least if he's hangin' around, it'll ward off some others." Aveila said, trying to look on the bright side. As it was, Anne stayed with Aveila in her little run down lean-to that served as her home in Sector Five for a week before she announced that she was using the money she had to move to Mideel.

Aveila missed Anne immediately. The place was not really big enough for two grown adults, but Anne had not minded bunking in with Aveila and having someone there helped ward off the night's chill. The two girls had recovered from their minor injuries after their ill-fated night at the gaudy Corneo Mansion when Jono had turned up unannounced on Aveila's doorstep.

That had been the day before Anne had left and Aveila wished her well as she watched the slender woman go, her curly black hair bouncing around her shoulders as she left Midgar behind. 

The big scandal though, was when Ruluf defected and left the Don's employ. Word went out to put him in the ground, until Ruluf himself walked voluntarily into the Don's mansion - in a Shin-Ra Turk suit, Veld by his side. Ruluf was theirs now and any bounty on him would not be tolerated. The Don was apoplectic with rage, but he acquiesced in the face of Shin-Ra; he had no choice.

Jono started coming by often, though Aveila never got any notice of when he would turn up or how long he might stay when he did. It was a strange sort of relationship, if it could be called that. He occasionally brought trinkets and tokens for her - most of which she quietly sold to supplement her income - and he often left her Gil. She was not affronted by this, she had been taking Gil for sexual favours for three years now, ever since her father had died. She had never known her mother as she had died shortly after Aveila turned three by getting caught in the scrap by a group of monsters.

Her father had worked himself to death trying to feed and clothe them both and keep a roof over their head and he had contracted a wasting illness and died; leaving Aveila alone. The landlord had allowed her to stay for a month's grace to find a new home and the suggested payment had revolted her at first, but she was scared of dying alone in the scrap, so had agreed to it. She had sold almost everything her father owned and used it to put the first rent down on this little place in Five. She had not wanted to stay in Three after losing her father and though it was little more than a shack with the basic amenities, it was at least something she could call her own.

Rent had been often discounted when her current landlord visited in the same way her childhood home had been before she had had to leave and she started doing it more often to put food in her belly. It was what it was. Life could be worse.

Jono treated her possessively at times and barely noticed her existence at others and yet he banned her from working in her chosen profession, giving her Gil himself. Being Don Corneo's second took up most of his time and Aveila flat out refused to go back to the mansion so he had to visit her in Five. The first time she had refused, he had bruised up her face and she had been so scared to refuse the next time he told her to see him there. This time he had accepted her reasoning of being scared of running into Arturo and said the man would likely try to one-up Jono if he could. The thought filled Aveila with nausea.

The only person she could really consider a friend in her lonely existence excepting the departed and distant Anne was Ruluf, or "Two Guns" as he was more usually referred to as now. He had turned up one day out of the blue and she had let him in, more out of shock than anything else. He had handed her a device that she was to activate if she ever needed him. He could not always come, he was often posted overseas, but if he was near - he would come to her aid.

"Why?" She had asked him.

"You were the final straw, you and the girl who left. We discreetly covered her tracks and aided her flight to Mideel." Ruluf told her. "I never could stomach what they did to you girls. I knew with Jono beside the Don that it would only get worse. I could not stop them myself, but the Don is scared of ShinRa and when Veld approached me and said he knew I was unhappy, I went with him."

Avela had thanked him and secreted the device where Jono would not think to look - just in case.

She had started to think of looking up Anne in Mideel knowing she was safe -and see if maybe she could follow the other woman away from Midgar after six months of being Jono's "girlfriend" and start afresh. There was nothing left here for her in Midgar. Her one chance at escaping the Slums and above plate had gone when she had not been chosen and that seemed like that. Ruluf had sent her a discreet message saying he was being posted in Junon for the foreseeable and she had promised herself not to call him unless she had no other option.

She was just itemising her belongings and thinking of how much she could sell each item for, how much a pair of good walking boots would cost, how to send a message to the secret Turk base in Junon and how much transport to Mideel might cost when Jono turned up at the door.

"Hey." He greeted her as he let himself into her miniscule home. "When ya gettin' dinner on?"

 _Lovely greeting._ Aveila thought, sarcastically. "I didn't buy enough for two, I can get something?"

"I'll come wit' ya, I'm starvin'." Jono decided and Aveila went out into the street and he followed her. They had just got to the stall and decided on pizza that Aveila could manage in her little oven when she swooned and blacked out. The next thing she knew, she was in the little doctor's surgery with Jono looking annoyed.

"Ya fuckin' puked on me." He snapped as she opened her eyes and indicated his befouled boots as the doctor eyed him with distaste.

"Miss Sinclair, it seemed you vomited and passed out in the market." The doctor told her and Aveila could not remember the woman's name.

"So what's wrong wit' 'er?" Jono snarled.

"Nothing."

"I ain't 'avin that she just randomly puked on my _new boots_."

"It was not random, I said that there is nothing wrong with her; Miss Sinclair is with child." Aveila was not sure how Jono took the news as she seemed transported into an out of body experience as she got filled with dread. How was she going to feed another mouth? She could barely feed and house herself.

"I'm gonna have a son?" He asked and Aveila snapped back into the present. No matter what happened, the child was innocent in this and had not chosen their parentage. She would just have to do her best.

"There is no guarantee it will be a boy." The doctor reminded.

"No need for a girl, but a _boy_. Now that could be promisin'." Jono was in his own little world, planning things for their as-yet unborn child; but only if it was a boy.

The next few months passed in usual fashion, Aveila was supported financially by Jono and he kept up promises of better times if she gave him a son. He increased her income a little so that she was able to move into a bigger home, but she still refused to move to Six. She moved near the Sector Five orphanage into a two-bedroom ground floor flat and made it habitable for herself and a child, though she kept a small stash of money hidden under the floorboards in case she ever needed to flee quickly. She was thinking she might need it if she gave birth to a daughter.

As it was, when she went into labour and was attended by Doctor Morrer (whom she had got to know pretty well during her pregnancy and who did not judge her), she delivered a son. It had not been an easy process and she instinctively knew that had the doctor not been attending her, she might not have survived the ordeal.

Jono had cared somewhat for the agony Aveila had been in, but it was overwhelmed by seeing a healthy son in the bassinet.

"I am sorry to say Aveila, you will be unable to bear another child."

"But he is safe and healthy?" Aveila demanded, not really caring if she could have any more as long as her son was safe.

"He is. He has all his fingers and toes and is breathing well."

"What are you going to name him?"

"Reno." Aveila answered before Jono could say one of his truly terrible suggestions and the doctor wrote it on the birth certificate quickly.

"Last name?"

"Dantress." Jono snapped and Aveila decided not to argue and the doctor finished the paperwork. Jono had been delighted that he had a son, though he had 'shown' Aveila how angry he was that she had named him herself and broken her arm that night. When the doctor patched her up, Aveila told her grimly that a broken arm was worth it if her son was not named something stupid and that she had expected it.

"Why do you not leave him?"

"I was going to...but then I found out I was pregnant. He'll never let his son go, we'd be hunted."

Reno grew up a skinny little thing, but healthy and nimble. The local doctor seemed to stop by a lot and he liked her, his mother seemed to like her as well and he liked it when his mama was smiling. He did not like it when his father came by, often drunk and told Reno bragging stories about things he had done for the Don. He also did not like it when Doctor Morrer visited after his father, as it usually meant his mama had 'booboos' to be tended.

As he got old enough to understand what the 'booboos' actually were, he started to develop a serious dislike of his father, but when he tried to intervene one day and stop his father he had ended up with broken fingers. Doctor Morrer had patched him up, but seeing his beloved mama cry and fuss over him had somehow hurt worse than the breaks.

His father did not visit as much after Reno turned ten, he still came by to 'inspect' and 'assess' his son, pleased with the boy's swiftness and how nimble he was, but he loudly told Aveila how she was getting old and craggy. Reno thought that was very rude, his mother was the most beautiful woman he knew and she was hardly 'old' at thirty. With Jono visiting less, Aveila sometimes turfed Reno out of the house and had gentleman callers. It was not long before Reno realised this was where their money came from and he decided he wanted to help, so he learned how to slit purses and pick pockets to try to help her. He even took a battered old wooden baton to some of the lesser monsters of the scrap (though he always knew when to run rather than to fight) and got Gil and some bits he could sell that way. He started keeping a little hidden stash of potions under his bed in case his mother needed them.

It was unconventional and dysfunctional, but Reno was as happy as he could be in the circumstances. He had started to attract notice from the Don, however. One day when he was eleven, Jono grabbed him from the flat and took him to meet the man. He did not know how anyone could get that fat in the slums, but knew just enough to keep his mouth shut.

"So this is the kid?" Don Corneo asked.

"Yeah, Boss. He's wiry, but he's _fast_ , like no one I ever see'd before." Jono said proudly as though it was all because of him - it was not. "Be a great look-out."

"I'll be interested to see what you make of yourself, Reno Dantress." Reno itched to burst out that he had no interest in working for the fat Don nor being near his horrible, abusive father; but he literally bit his tongue to stop himself. That evening, he took some money and bought some red hair dye. He soaked his light mousey brown hair in it so that he would not look like his father so much; with his hair newly dyed red, he much more closely resembled his mother. He already had her eyes and her lips, after all.

"Oh, Reno." Aveila said when she had seen it, knowing instinctively why he had done it.

"I don' wanna look like 'im no more." Reno had told her, jutting his chin defiantly. She had just held him and cried. "We could get outta here?"

"Maybe, sweetheart, but he will follow. He wants you to follow him, he thinks the two of you could unseat the Don and run Wall Market."

"I don' care. I want ya t'be safe, Ma."

A few months later, a week after Reno's twelfth birthday, his father visited and he was out of his mind on booze and who knew what else. Reno knew it would be a bad day when he burst through the door, it was like a sixth sense and part of him screamed to run away but he knew he would not leave his mother to Jono Dantress' mercy.

"Stop bein' a stupid bitch and lemme take the brat." He heard his father snarl from the bedroom about an hour after he had arrived. Reno had been in the kitchen, making a huge mess that had the hints of a dinner in the middle, trying to help; but his insides went ice cold as his ears pricked up and he realised they were fighting about him.

"No, he's too young and he doesn' wanna work for Corneo anyway." Aveila retorted and Reno heard the horrible and familiar crack of his father striking his mother.

"Don' talk back t'me, ya whore."

"So what if I am? It feeds and clothes _your son_. You certainly don' contribute enough!" Aveila yelled back and slammed the door open and burst out of the main bedroom. "C'mon, Reno, we're leavin'."

"An' where d'ya think ya takin' him? I don' care if you fuck off and die in some rat-hole, but he's my _property_."

"No I ain't." Reno stood up and put himself between Jono and Aveila.

"You is an' you'll stop bein' a little shit like yer useless mother and be useful t'me and the Don."

"Never!" Reno yelled. He saw how the Don operated in Six all the time when he was slicing purses. He hated the way Six truly ran under the bright lights. He loathed the men he saw hurting women like his mother, just women trying to survive. He had even roped in the three most prominent proprietors in the region to supply him with a steady stream of pretty women and called them 'The Trio'. Reno thought he was a horrible, fat pig.

"Look what'cha done to t'boy. Annoyin' lil shit-talkin' prick. I'll beat that outta ya." Jono snarled and he flung Reno aside, Reno slammed roughly against the kitchen counter and gasped in pain as his ribs collided hard with the side. He looked on in horror as Jono continued his momentum and viciously attacked his mother.

As Reno peeled himself off of the side and instinctively put his right arm around his throbbing injury, he dove in and swung for Jono. It was not a successful attack, his father was much more solidly built, had his feet planted well and had years of fighting in him to build up a tolerance to swats from injured twelve year old boys and Reno found his ribs aggravated when he was slammed back into the side and out of the way as his father turned back to Aveila.

He heard a horrific crack and his mother dropped heavily to the floor, but something felt worse than usual. She normally picked herself up and glared defiantly at Jono - stronger than him in every way but physical; but she did not move. A trickle of blood seeped from her head and grew larger as Reno watched, horrified.

"Get up, bitch." Jono snarled, but Reno could not tear his eyes away from her - realising her neck was at an unnatural angle and the awful, horrific truth dawned on him before it got through Jono's drunken look.

Reno let out a scream, full of grief, pain and defiance. Without thinking, he snatched up the chef's knife he had been using to make dinner and he swiped at his father, cutting his arm deeply and the man's blood flowed freely to the floor. Reno saw it mingle with Aveila's and that only made him angrier. 

Jono caught up with what was happening - his on-and-off girlfriend he had kept tied to him through fear and their son was dead at his hands and that self-same son was attacking him with a knife with murder in every line of his young face. 

Trying to defend himself, the drunken man smashed the nearby half-drunk bottle of beer on the table and swung wildly at his son, catching him below his eye and cutting a thin, jagged gash along his cheekbone and up, the cut framed the blue eye of the boy - the same blue eyes Aveila Sinclair had had.

"I hate you!" Reno screamed, undeterred by his injuries he ducked to prevent the bottle from doing more damage and as he adjusted himself and angled up, the chef's knife slid like butter through Jono's flesh. Reno had struck him perfectly and the knife plunged deep and pierced the man's physical heart; he had no spiritual one.

A strange gasping noise left Jono as if he was being deflated and he slumped to the floor, by the time he hit it his eyes were glassy and no more breath escaped him. Reno dropped the weapon and fell to his knees by his mother's corpse and he tried to lift her, hoping he was wrong, but he was not.

The howl that left his throat raw was almost inhuman. Enough so that the neighbours were alerted. They were used to noises from this house, but this seemed different. They burst in and saw Reno, bruised and bloody holding his mother's clearly dead corpse and Jono nearby with a pool of blood spreading from beneath him and they knew immediately what had happened.

Within minutes, though Reno knew not what time was any more, word had ripped through Sector Five that Jono Dantress, Don Corneo's Right Hand Man, was dead. Murdered by his own son in retribution for his own murder of Reno's mother. It took barely any more time for word to travel the scrap to Six and the Don dispatched his men to fetch the boy.

Doctor Morrer came and did the formal pronouncement and was just shooing out the gawkers Reno had barely noticed when Arturo and some other goons burst in. Arturo looked on the dead man with glee before harshly yanking Reno away from his mother's cooling body despite the boy kicking and screaming - and biting him.

"Scrappy lil fucker ain't ya?" Arturo chuckled, despite the teeth marks in his forearm. "Take 'im t'the Don."

"Are you here to claim the body?" The doctor asked, knowing she would never manage to get Reno away from the Don by herself. She had to trust that there was something good in the Slums that could help the poor orphan.

"'im? Nah, fuck 'im. He was a nasty streak 'o piss. Dump the body on the scrap and let the doomrats eat 'im." Arturo said, loving this.

"We will cremate him." The doctor sniffed, she hated the man but she did not want to invite doomrats to the sector for any reason.

"Eh." Arturo shrugged before following his men easily, most of them were yelping in pain as Reno continued to thrash and resist.

They returned to Six and took the cut-purse into the Don's mansion and tossed him on the floor in from of Corneo.

"So, you killed my Jono, hmm?" Don Corneo said, a strange jovial note to his words though his eyes were stony.

"He killed my mother." Reno spat, fury still coursing through his body.

"Spirited little thing, eh?" The Don stood and started to evaluate Reno as he had once done to Reno's mother over a decade before. "Wiry, scrappy - I know you are fast and good with a knife - sliced enough purses round here to prove that."

"What d'ya want?" Reno snarled, not liking being scrutinised like this.

"You deprived me of my Second - you'll need to prove yourself, but I could find use for you. Loyalty like Jono's was hard to come by." Reno noticed Arturo flinch ever so slightly out of the corner of his eye.

"I ain't workin' for ya, ya fat fuck." Reno retorted.

"Manners." The Don said and Arturo stepped forward and punched Reno, knocking out the last of his baby teeth with the blow hitting his jaw just so.

"Shin-Ra does not take kindly to their assets being hurt." A voice came from the door and everyone within the room whipped their heads around and saw a suited Turk in the doorway - not just any Turk. It was "Two Guns" himself, Ruluf.

"This is not Shin-Ra business." The Don retorted.

"Yet. Reno Dantress, I would like to extend you an offer to join the Turks of Shin-Ra."

"Will it mean this gross sack 'o Ifrit's steamin' shit leaves me alone?" Reno replied, perversely enjoying the bristling the Don was trying and failing to cover as his lackeys all bristled visibly for him.

"It would." Ruluf replied, the corner of his lips quirking briefly upwards.

"I accept." Reno decided.

"Well then, this _is_ now officially Shin-Ra business, Corneo."

"Fine. Get outta my sight." The Don waved an irritable hand and Ruluf gestured for Reno to go outside and he fell into step behind him. They walked silently out of Sector Six and were halfway to Five before Ruluf opened dialogue.

"I am truly sorry about your mother, Reno. She was a friend. I was not fast enough."

"Whaddya mean 'not fast emough'?" Reno asked, suspiciously.

"Sharp as a tack, I see. Looks like I made a good call just now." Ruluf mused aloud. "I gave your mother a panic button of sorts before you were even born. It was seeing what the Don and Jono did to her and the others that made me walk away and join Shin-Ra. I told her to contact me if it was ever dire. I had thought she had forgotten or lost it, but she activated it a couple of hours ago. I was in Junon and even though I commandeered a chopper, I could not get here fast enough."

"She...my mother had a panic button?"

"If she ever truly feared for her safety, she was to call me and I would come." Ruluf confirmed.

"She trusted ya, then."

"She did." 

"'Kay." Reno fell silent again and Ruluf let him as they took the steps back to his home and past the gossiping crowds - well, gossiping until they saw Reno being escorted by a suited Turk and then they fell very silent.

Reno walked past them and re-entered the place he had grown up. The bodies were gone, but the blood was still very present and the place smelled metallic.

"Wait." Reno went to his room...his _former_ room and took a couple of things with him and wrapped them in a pack. He took a pair of goggles his mother had bought for his recent birthday and slid them onto his face and pulled them to the top of his forehead, lifting his unruly hair from his face. "Ready."

Doctor Morrer looked at him sadly - his mother's corpse laying in her surgery and being prepared for cremation - separately from Jono Dantress. The poor woman had met a fate the doctor had thought inevitable but she still was angry and felt it bitterly unfair.

"I brought you this. It was what she wanted." The doctor handed Reno a slip of paper and tears slid down his cheeks as he read it.

"Thank ya, Doc."

"Take care, Reno." She told him and he nodded rigidly and then walked out, not sure he could hold on to his emotions if he remained any longer and he followed Ruluf to the helicopter and his new life. They landed above plate and Ruluf led the scrawny orphan into the Shin-Ra Building and down to Floor B3, to where Veld was waiting behind a glossy-looking desk.

"So, Reno, what's your last name?" Veld asked.

"Dant-" Ruluf began.

"Sinclair. My name is Reno Aveilon Sinclair." Reno stated, flatly and he slapped down his new - and forged - birth certificate on the desk. The two men nodded and accepted it. Reno Sinclair he was, Ruluf and Veld knew this was a forgery but they said nothing.

"Welcome to the Turks, Reno Sinclair." Veld told him. "We need to get you a suit."

\---

"No ma'er what happens," Reno said, tears definitely _not_ shimmering in his blue eyes that Tifa could definitely _not_ see and sympathise with; he was grateful when she looked away and let him not wipe anything away, "I can't let this place become what the Midgar slums were an' I don' like an' can't forgive men who hurt women. Anyway. Now ya know what I am, ya can forget callin' me a friend without any guilt."

"Reno, I don't hate you for what you have done. How could I? You tried to defend your mother and you did not become your father. You were strong and I don't want to call you my friend anyway."

"What..?" He looked up, totally confused. She did not hate him, she thought he was strong but she did not want him to be her friend even after that initially baffling notion? 

He knew his confusion was shining in his eyes as he looked at her and not caring, this woman was infuriatingly complex sometimes. His brain entirely shorted when she stepped in to him and dipped her head, her hands coming up to cradle his cheeks and her lips met his. They were soft, gentle and yet he could feel the strength in her hands as she cradled his face.

It suddenly dawned on him that she was _kissing him_. Tifa Lockhart was kissing _him_ , Reno Sinclair of the Turks. As she moved her lips, patiently and seemingly knowing he was desperately trying to figure out what the heck was actually happening right now, his mind managed to make the necessary connections.

He had told her not to kiss him unless she wanted to kiss _him_ , not to do it if she only felt guilt for his current disabled status after the fight with Loz. She had thought he was strong. She did not want to be a _friend_....and was actively kissing him.

She did not want to be his friend, she wanted to be his _girlfriend_. There could be no other reading of her actions, could there? His brain flicked through some other potential possibilities and it was as if his synapses were mired in molasses as it took a seemingly long time for him to make that final, incredible realisation.

His muscles and bones were probably all screaming at him in pain, but as it clicked and he pulled her soft kiss into a searing one, full of the passion he felt for her, the adrenalin and endorphins flooding his body entirely submerged them. She met his fire with her own, though she was being careful and doing her best not to hurt him, the pair of them crashed their mutual feelings together, their passions ignited and pouring from one into the other.

He had no idea how long they were there kissing one another as if there was nothing and no one else in the entire world, but he started to feel a little nip of cold as night started to fall. At some point, Tifa had gently sat on his lap and though it was not pain-free, he could take it; in fact, he welcomed it as it made her easier to kiss and wrap his arms around her waist and he could feel her soft breasts brush the tops of his arms as he enveloped her. They finally separated and Tifa got off his lap.

"Its going to get cold, we should get you back."

"Not just yet." She smiled at him and curled up in front of his chair and rested her head on his lap gently and as he stroked her hair and looked up at the twinkling stars above Neo Midgar, he felt like his mother was smiling down at him and it filled him with a warmth he had not felt in years.


	10. The boys of Shin-Ra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Wassat when it's at home?" Cid asked, tired and a bit fed up with all this nonsense. Why couldn't Sephiroth just bugger off, die and stay dead? He went into the kitchenette and started making himself a cup of tea.

_Three days later_

"So Rude then just _looked_ at the guy and I swear he just about soiled his-" Yuffie was telling them over their after-dinner drinks and Tseng walked in, silencing her immediately. 

No one noticed Cloud giving her an appraising look as the Wutaian ninja seemed to have slotted in with the Turks and their hierarchy neatly and very quickly. Rude had a pleased little look on his face that slid off and became neutral and ready at the sight of his boss and then at Rufus Shin-Ra as the latter walked into the room with a cane to support instead of his wheelchair as he was still strengthening his muscles again.

"We have a report." Tseng told them as Rufus settled himself leaning against the wall, but he was getting stronger by the day now the geostigma had left his body.

"Sephiroth, Kadaj and Yazoo have been reported at the Northern Crater. I have Elena organising transportation now to verify this information." Rufus added. "We suspect them of trying to find any additional JENOVA cells as we know absorption can strengthen them - and we have shown that we can beat them as-is."

"I will take Elena for the recon, you two stay here and help the President and AVALANCHE as needed until we are back." Tseng told them, the other Turks, permanent and temporary nodded in confirmation of their orders and he left the room to join his subordinate.

Reno had a look on his face that was easily readable by the others - he was to be left out of this of course. 

"Why don't we do quick recon patrols?" Tifa suggested as she stood up. "Rude, Yuffie - take the West, Cloud and Barret take North and stop by the orphanage? Nanaki and Cid take South and Reno and I will take East. Vincent - stay here and coordinate with Rufus; if that is good with you?"

"Fine by me." Rufus confirmed. He actually quite liked Vincent, he reminded him of Tseng with his quiet demeanour, plus as an ex-Turk, he was less abrasive.

"Mmm." Vincent agreed.

"I'll call Reeve, he'll want to know." Yuffie offered, pulling out her PHS as she and Rude left the room together.

"If we coordinate, we will be fine." Tifa nodded as she spoke, convincing herself even as she tried to convince the others. "We've fought them off before and we can do it again. We are all getting used to working with each other. This time, we can stop them for good."

"I would count me out of any plans," Vincent reminded. "In case you end up having to fight Chaos also."

"We will do what we can to stop that from happening." Tifa told him, firmly.

"Dr. Crescent's notes may have an insight." Rufus added, a little quietly as no one wanted to bring up Lucrecia with Vincent as he was obviously grieving in his own quiet way.

"We can look from tomorrow." Vincent told them, his voice a little tighter than usual but he gave no other outward show of his pain. "Reno can help me, he has a mind for sifting for intelligence."

"Sure. Let's go, I want some air." Reno responded, his voice flat.

The pairs filed out to their assignations and Tifa wheeled Reno around the corner and stopped the chair and stood in front of him before she crouched so that her face was level with his. Neither of them noticed Rude and Yuffie, suspicious of their friends, had stationed themselves in the shadows and blending in with their dark suits and shades (Yuffie had taken to wearing them on shift to match her partner).

"You may not be able to fight any more, but you are still a valuable member of the team." She told him, her words quiet but they carried in the still air to their eavesdroppers.

"I know tha', it jus'...it feels thrown in mah face sometimes." He admitted and he reached for her hand reassuringly and she took it gently and squeezed carefully. "I don' regret what I did an' I never will, but it will never no' needle, yanno?"

"I know." She assured him and then, with no surprise to the pair watching, she leaned forward and gently kissed him, their lips caressing one another with a sweet ease, her hand coming up to cradle his tattooed face. They were not one-hundred per cent sure when exactly Tifa and Reno had crossed the line from enemies to allies, from allies to friends - and now from friends to lovers, but they were pleased to see it.

"Come on. We should check Newall first, then we can go back to the bar." Tifa broke the kiss and told Reno. "Want to wheel yourself?"

"Nah, you can push me." He told her and she smiled - he usually hated other people wheeling the chair on his behalf - and they walked away towards Newall.

"I knew it!" Yuffie squealed and punched the air as soon as the other two were out of earshot. "Leviathan, they make a hot couple."

"Mmm. It is good for hi-" Rude spoke little enough that it was rare for him to be interrupted, but this time he was surprised by both the interruption and by the fact that the interruption was caused by the excitable ninja kissing _him_. It only lasted half a second, but he stared at her afterwards, her pretty face beaming. He coughed, then took his glasses off, folded them and slid them into his pocket, before grabbing her and kissing her back; this time much more passionately and fiercely.

Reno was right - he should stop overthinking things.

\---

Tifa and Reno continued on, oblivious to having been caught out in their new relationship, they headed for Newall. If any rumours had made it to Neo Midgar outside of official Shin-Ra channels, that was where they would be.

They chatted as they moved around the evening streets and asked a few shop proprietors oblique questions to see if they knew anything, but word did not seem to have reached the city and they were just turning around to head back, Tifa suggesting stopping off at the bar for some time just for the two of them when Reno heard a voice he recognised as a recent fling.

"Reno?" Ah, shit. He lifted his head and gave a smirk to the woman walking over and he recognised Caity from the club he had frequented after Tifa emerged from the crystal and before he had got hurt. "Oh."

Caity had clocked that he was in a wheelchair as they got closer and that a very attractive woman was pushing him. A woman that she faintly resembled and the pieces started to fall in to place for her.

"Hi, Caity." Reno greeted politely, but hoping to get this over quickly as it was going to be really awkward.

"What happened? I was worried when we had not seen you in a few weeks." Caity said, drawing herself up visibly.

"He saved my life." Tifa offered when Reno paused. "Nice to meet you, I'm Tifa."

"Caity." The woman supplied at the curious note in Tifa's voice, then she turned back to Reno. "You saved her _life_?"

"I got a bit hur', though. So I haven't been by. Can't really dance righ' now." All three knew exactly what he meant by 'dance' and Tifa clocked on to the resemblance between both women.

Caity was not as toned or conditioned as Tifa herself, but she still cut an impressive figure and had waist-length dark hair. Her eyes were brown to her own red but the resemblance was enough to be noticed. Either Reno had a type, or he had sought out someone that looked like her purposefully and it made Tifa blush a little - she remembered how close they had become before the incident and wondered if this was how he dealt with it.

Caity looked back at a group in line waiting to go into the club and she waved at them as if everything were fine and she was not sad inside, accepting that she and Reno - who she had liked a lot - would be anything more to one another. He clearly had feelings for this other woman. She was not about to pine and mope, she would pick herself up and move on.

"Well, I hope you get better soon, Reno."

"Thanks, Cait." He nodded and she smiled a little tightly at Tifa and returned to her friends as Tifa wheeled Reno away from Newall in silence. He was rarely quiet (moreso lately) but she realised he needed a moment to sort through that encounter.

The next morning, they all reported in, no one had heard anything in Neo Midgar. Tseng and Elena debriefed the group that they had found evidence of the trio living in the Forgotten City but had not dared go any closer and risk combat just the two of them.

Barret had come by with Marlene and Denzel for breakfast so they dropped the talk in front of the kids while they ate.

"Okay, Tseng and Elena should go rest, the rest of you continue patrolling together?" Rufus suggested, it was in actuality an order but he framed it like a question so as not to set Barret off.

"I'm takin' the kids out today." Barret reminded.

"I'll go with Vincent, Reno and Rufus to decipher Dr. Crescent's notes and-" Tifa started ordering them on purpose to try to deflect suspicion, but Marlene interrupted.

"Actually, Tifa, can you come with me? I wanted to return a library book. I can meet you later, Daddy?" Everyone looked at her surprised.

"Sure..?" Tifa shrugged and the group split up, as soon as they were clear of Barret, Tifa turned to her girl. "Okay, what are you up to?"

"I want to get a book, but I don't want Daddy to know what yet." She explained.

"What can you not tell your father?" Tifa was confused and surprised.

"I want to become a doctor. I'm quite good at healing and I want to help people, but he needs more time to get used to me not being four years old any more." Marlene explained and Tifa nodded, thinking that though it was very astute of the girl - Tifa herself still occasionally forgot.

They went to the library - which Tifa had not been aware of before - and Marlene selected her books and then secreted them at the Orphanage to read later before she dropped the girl off with Denzel and her Dad. Tifa then returned to the lab and they started the dreary and difficult process of trying to find anything helpful in Lucrecia's notes.

_Two weeks later_

Each day had been spent the same, they checked for any further information on Sephiroth and his stooges but they were still in the Forgotten City. Most of the group split off into pairs and patrolled, their fighting styles meshing better each day as they ensured monsters could not get into Neo Midgar and the split between the Turks and AVALANCHE got smaller with each bit of camaraderie.

Rufus had also been doing his physical exercises daily and now could go almost the whole day without needing his cane as his strength returned to his body and limbs. He only needed the assistance now if he overexerted himself.

Rufus, Reno, Tifa and Vincent trawled through anything they could, going over it again and again with different theories until they finally made a breakthrough. Vincent was still sad and reeling a bit from the so-recent death of Lucrecia, but he was soothed by the knowledge that she was ready to fade into the Lifestream. She had confronted her sins head on and had died knowing she was doing the right thing. He hoped he would get the same, but wondered if he could ever be killed as the vessel of Chaos. Still, he would follow her example and continue to do the right thing.

Even through his grief and the work, he and Rufus sometimes caught each other's eyes and shared silently their suspicions that Reno and Tifa had grown closer than they were letting on.

"Wait..." Rufus said and broke the silence, lifting his copy of the notes and the others looked up at him. "I think I know why Chaos is breaking free."

"Yes?" Vincent prompted.

"Dr. Crescent placed the Protomateria into your body to control Chaos according to this. Your body was able to accept Chaos to save itself after Hojo's repugnant experiments, but Chaos needed containing. What if the corrupted Lifestream is preventing the Protomateria doing it's job?"

"Then how do we banish the corruption if you are right?" Tifa asked. "The notes state that Chaos is to bring forth the Omega Weapon and destroy all life on Gaia. If Sephiroth is trying to bring Chaos out, he will try to bring Omega. He must know this to even try messing with Chaos."

"Yes, Sephiroth is insane but he is also intelligent and knowledgeable." Rufus agreed. "He knows all this, likely from his JENOVA corruption. We need something that can combat his power."

"..." They all thought for a long moment, then Tifa gasped.

"Holy."

Within the hour, everyone was back from patrol and the foursome shared their discoveries and hypothesis with the group. Marlene and Denzel had been dropped at the Orphanage and were going through her library books, Barret planning to pick his daughter up afterwards.

"We need to find Holy? But none of us can activate it." Cloud said when he had digested it all and then he paled. "It fell from Aerith's hair in the...Sephiroth is not just looking for JENOVA cells - he is looking for Aerith's materia! He did not see it fall, I'm certain - but he must know it will be somewhere nearby. Her body went to the Lifestream, but the materia would not have and I buried her in the lake outside, not where the materia fell."

The adventuring party all knew well that Cloud had had enough nightmares and flashbacks to that moment that he would know exactly where the materia was. They decided to retrieve it as soon as possible.

Cloud, Barret, Yuffie, Rude, Tifa and Cid went with Tseng and Elena by chopper to the Forgotten City. Nanaki picked up Marlene and Denzel from the Orphanage and brought them back to the Shin-Ra headquarters so they knew where they were at all times.

Tifa had initially wanted to stay behind, but Reno had urged her to go with the group on his behalf as she would be an asset there and that he was unable to help right now, but that he could watch over the kids. Nanaki seconded that he would watch over them all and she agreed to go.

They landed at the edge of the forest and moved on foot to the Forgotten City, Tseng and Elena hung back by the chopper to protect it as it was their ticket out of there. 

Cloud and Tifa partnered, Rude and Yuffie did likewise and Barret and Cid made up the other pair, watching their backs. AVALANCHE had usually fought in trios, but the Turks worked in pairs and they figured they could be more manoeuvrable this way.

They picked their way carefully through the Forgotten City, all of them dealing with the knowledge that Aerith had met her end here. They infiltrated silently and swiftly, making their way to the huge cocoon-like building and made their way carefully down the crystalline staircase. Tifa's heart was beating so loud in her chest as the moment Aerith had been taken from them replayed in her mind as they closed in on that fateful platform.

The pool was large and Tifa and Cloud stripped down to their underwear and dove into the water as the others watched their backs in case of attack. It took several dives and the pair were getting tired, but finally, Tifa spotted a faint glimmer and she snatched at it, triumphantly holding the materia aloft as she surfaced.

A feeling of dread subsumed her soul as she saw Kadaj at the top of the stairs, Barret unloading bullets as the silver haired boy laughed maniacally and descended. She launched herself out of the water and grabbed the towels they had packed and dried herself as Cloud did the same beside her, she changed without a care for who saw what as she ripped her wet things off and got dressed and pulled her gloves on.

As she turned to the action, Cloud yelled behind her and Sephiroth dropped from the ceiling and she knew he had done it on purpose to unnerve them more - and she was angry that it worked. The attacks of those that had witnessed Aerith's death were affected as they pulled themselves together and Kadaj and Sephiroth took advantage. 

Cid took a nasty dual cut from Souba and Cloud was driven to the edge of the pool by Sephiroth's attack and he almost slipped on the puddle he and Tifa had left, Sephiroth closing on him. This was all going to go so very horribly wrong - and Tifa got an idea.

"RUN. NOW!" She yelled at the others and they took heed, realising she had a plan and they raced past Kadaj and up the stairs. "Cloud. Go!"

Cloud had nowhere to go except down, so he threw himself into the water and swam back to the platform as Tifa activated her combined materia and launched herself at Sephiroth. She had been slashed by Masamune once before and did not want to feel it again, but she timed this attack to perfection and used her Speed Plus boost to get close and then she loosed a Deathblow on Sephiroth. He had not been expecting it as he had been so focused on Cloud and his footing was incorrect. 

She slammed into him at force and he stumbled back, slipped on the puddle and splashed down into the water.

"Cloud, dive!" He did as she ordered as Kadaj closed on her and she activated the Mime and repeated her actions from before and she sent Kadaj cartwheeling through the air after Sephiroth.

Cloud had dived several feet as she did so and kicked powerfully, using his momentum to launch himself up and Tifa caught him and the two got him up on to the platform. They nodded to each other and raced after the others.

"I can't believe you just did that." Yuffie laughed as they ran and Tifa tossed her a Reno-worthy smirk.

"I can't believe it _worked_." She replied, but their mirth died when they got to the chopper. Yazoo was there and Tseng and Elena were, most definitely, down.

"FUCK YOU!" Barret yelled, surprising the others with his ferocity in defence of Turks, but he fired on Yazoo, who started to fire back, laughing insanely as he did so.

"I forgot about him." Tifa cursed and she ran to close with him as the others reached for their weapons. She launched a vicious punch that he dodged, but he dodged right into Cid's spear which was her plan anyway and she darted past him and refused to let any more of her friends - any more of the Turks - get hurt while she could do anything about it.

Barret, Rude, Yuffie, Cid and Cloud converged on Yazoo and coordinated their attacks to overwhelm the gunner as Tifa tossed a regenerate each then curaga after curaga over the prone pair. The bullets were pulled magically from them and the wounds started to heal. 

Their damage was not structural like Reno's had been, but they remained unconscious as their shredded-then-repaired organs rested and Tifa loaded them carefully into the helicopter as the others fought on behind her.

"Tifa!" Yuffie called and Tifa re-joined the fray, but Yuffie and Rude broke from the fight and leaped into the pilot and co-pilot seats as she swept her legs down and tripped Yazoo, allowing Cloud to unleash a Braver attack onto him.

They were just about to finish off Yazoo, but they saw Sephiroth and Kadaj running towards them, dripping wet but looking murderous all the same.

"TIME TO GO, PEOPLE!" Yuffie yelled over the helicopter's comms and they broke off and slammed the door shut and lifted off just in time to evade attack, Rude banking hard to the right to avoid a firaga shot into the sky from Sephiroth as Kadaj fell to his knees by Yazoo.

"Sure _you_ can fly?" Cid called over the headset to Yuffie as she was a notoriously bad flier. She had just about managed the trip here.

"I might vomit, but yeah. Rude's been teachi' me! Don't worry. I'm getting better at not getting airsick." She yelled back. True to her word, she only needed to grab a vomit bag once during the trip.

They landed and got Tseng and Elena - both now awake - into the hospital area, but were told they would be fine by the doctors thanks to Tifa's quick healing efforts, then they went and debriefed the others.

"You got Holy?" Rufus asked, pale still after learning of Tseng and Elena's wounds, but steadied knowing they would be okay. He did not want to lose any more of his little family.

"Here." Tifa held it up. The small sphere had a light sheen.

"I thought it was brighter than that." Yuffie stated. The girls had all seen it often when Aerith had been alive, she would wrap it carefully in her pink bow each morning before they left their inn room or tent to join the boys.

"It was. Much brighter." Tifa confirmed. "But this is definitely it. I can't activate it, but I get a sense of Aerith holding it."

"It is likely weakened - both from the Cetra being seemingly gone and from being constantly in use for five centuries preserving us." Vincent hypothesised.

"If Aerith was the last Cetra and she's gone, why did we bother gettin' it? Other than to keep it away from Sephiroth?" Barret asked.

"Aerith was the last _known_ Cetra." Cloud reminded. "Her mother, Ifalna was the last confirmed pure-blood Cetra. Her father was a normal human."

"Professor Gast Faremis, yes." Rufus nodded, thinking.

"Is there a way to test for Cetra abilities? A _humane and ethical_ way?" Barret added the last part for Rufus' benefit.

"Not one that is known, no." Rufus replied, voice and eyes flat as it always was when he conversed with Wallace.

"What about the alter-Cetra?" Tifa asked, partly because she remembered it from Lucrecia's notes, but also to stop any bickering in its tracks.

"Wassat when it's at home?" Cid asked, tired and a bit fed up with all this nonsense. Why couldn't Sephiroth just bugger off, die and stay dead? He went into the kitchenette and started making himself a cup of tea.

"Dr. Crescent's notes mentioned that Hojo was tryin' to make what they referred to as alter-Cetra. He believed tha' Cetran 'resources' were too scant and that Aerith would have at most half the capability of 'er mother. If they could not find any others, he wanted t' try to manufacture some people with Cetra abilities." Reno added, following his girlfriend's train of thought.

"He injected the wombs of three women with mako along with cells from Ifalna Faremis." Vincent added. "He hoped the foetuses would absorb the cellular makeup with mako infusion to counteract the body's natural rejection of foreign matter. Lucrecia's notes imply it worked and the children born of the experiment exhibited some Cetran traits."

"So now we gotta find three unnamed people who could be anyone - and could also be dead. Great." Yuffie signed, annoyed. "Do we even know how many boys or girls?"

"Three males survived birth." Vincent said "I do not know more."

"We should start our search with boys who had known affiliations to Shin-Ra of old." Tifa said, thinking aloud. 

"That's a lotta people, yo. Chances are Hojo kept 'em off the books, too. Not tha' the books exist any more anyway..." Reno reminded them all.

"No, my father _must_ have been aware of this. We just have to think of three males of the right age range who share an...anomaly..." Rufus began and then he trailed off and looked positively sick.

"Boss?" Reno asked, looking worried.

"I had two half-brothers. One of whom I know to have been the child of a failed Sephiroth clone, the other died after becoming an Angeal copy..." Rufus paled further and sat down to steady his suddenly wobbly legs.

"You think _you_..?" Barret asked, incredulously.

"I both sincerely hope not and sincerely hope so." Rufus replied as Tifa went over and put her hand on Rufus' shoulder comfortingly as he looked worryingly nauseated - and he allowed it, surprising the room in general. "I was born the same year they found JENOVA and thought it a Cetra... _ten months later_ , in fact."

"You ain't gon' go batshit like Sephiroth are ya?" Barret asked, almost kindly considering the words and whom he was addressing.

"No. We can't even be sure it was myself, Lazard and Evan." Rufus says, partly to reassure himself and partly to stop Barret losing his mind at the thought of Rufus Shin-Ra having some kind of power. "Sephiroth himself was part of a modified trio - Angeal Hewley, Genesis Rhapsodos and Sephiroth Crescent. Angeal is deceased, we assume Genesis to be - though his body was never recovered and Sephiroth, well. We know he is still around - though I doubt he could use the Holy materia for obvious reasons."

"Might be best to put the speculation to rest by trying it?" Tseng suggested quietly and Rufus nodded, a little hesitantly. Tifa handed him the small materia and he paused a moment, but then took it and let it rest in his open palm, the materia glimmered and brightened at his touch - though nowhere near as much as when Aerith had held it.

"Fuck." Barret and Cid swore in unison.

"I think Aerith must have known. I always thought it odd that you were found separate from others and under the crystal tree we were in - she was trying to send us a message." Tifa told Rufus directly.

"To be sure, others should hold it." Rufus stated, trying to process this new reality and truth. It was so very convenient for their needs right now - but he felt a hatred for his father that had not flared in a very long time briefly flare once again inside of himself. He had experimented on _his own sons_.

No wonder old Shin-Ra had put up with Rufus' murderous shenanigans and just banished him for trying to kill him. Evan had been the only other option as Lazard was already deceased by then and Evan was a poorer choice for heir than Rufus. He was not unintelligent, but Rufus was a cut above and was the son of the woman Shin-Ra had married. He was the best choice for heir.

The others took turns holding Holy and the more empathetic among them could feel what Tifa had - a hint of Aerith - but it remained a dim pearlescent in their hands. It only reacted to Rufus.

"I wonder if your need to chase us before was because the Cetran, or alter-Cetran, in your genetic make up was calling you?" Tifa theorised and Rufus met her eyes and shared a sad look with her. He guessed she was right. It had been nonsensical of him to chase them around - to go to the Northern Crater himself. He had _felt_ something there - was that his manufactured Cetran legacy? Ifalna's cells merged with his in the womb calling to him, but he too human to understand it? Did that make him a half-brother of sorts to the deceased flower girl? He had no idea and decided to try to dwell on the matter in hand and not what-ifs about engineered genetic legacies.

"It feels weak." Rufus stated as he retook the orb. "It needs time to recover strength."

"It is connected to Aerith and the Lifestream. Maybe we should let it sit in some of the water from the Dome Meadow?" Tifa mused aloud.

"We'll fetch some." Yuffie offered. The plan was sorted, the pair went to the Meadow to get a sample of the water and the others broke off to head to their own beds for the night, except Rufus, Reno and Tifa. Rufus sent Tseng away to rest though he had not wanted to leave the President's side.

The pair returned and Rufus entrusted the orb to the water before he went to his apartments, Rude and Yuffie on detail for the night.

Now that they were free, Tifa and Reno decided to go to the bar roof and stargaze for a bit and enjoy some time just to themselves before they bedded down. Tifa was living there now and though Reno was still sleeping in his modified room in the headquarters, it was nice to get some time away from the others and enjoy each other's company.

She opened the door and they went inside. The interior was almost finished, builders had been hard at work and transformed the place into a lovely and inviting bar. The estimate was one more week and the place could be stocked and made ready to open.

"Want some tea?" She suggested and he agreed as he quietly took some more painkillers and wheeled himself near to the bar as she started to prepare the tea.

He was very surprised to realise that he had the sensation of an erection beginning to stir as he watched her move around her little kitchen space making the offered drink. He had not had a psychogenic erection since his injuries, though he was able to get a reflexogenic one if he touched himself. He had been unable to masturbate long enough to orgasm though, as he found it hurt his fingers, wrist and hands to keep up the rhythm and strength needed to get there.

This, though, was new. He could feel his member stiffening into a semi as he watched his girlfriend move, her hair swaying, her hips swishing as she gathered the ingredients, her soft smile as she turned to look back at him...

Was it even possible? Could he still have some sort of sex life, after all? He had written it off as a negative the first time he had tried and failed to masturbate which had made him very frustrated. He had been a very sexual creature before the incident and though he very rarely had the same bed-mate for long, he had even more rarely lacked _someone_ to booty call if he wanted some horizontal fun.

"Tifa?" He asked as his erection continued to stiffen and he wanted - almost needed - to find out if he could at least be brought to orgasm, but he had to ask her first. He did not want her to feel like any sexual contact they might have be reduced to just testing out his limitations. He wanted it to be because they both wanted to share themselves sexually with the other.

"Yes?" She turned, having dropped the second tea bag in the mug.

"Can you come here a sec?" She nodded, then placed the kettle on and walked over to him.

"What is it?"

"I..." How to phrase this? What a strange moment, he never got flustered asking for anything sexual, he just came out and stated what he wanted. He then gestured at his crotch and her eyes fell down and saw the new bulge in his loose trousers - too difficult to get him into and out of his usual tight ones any more.

"Oh." She then flushed a very pretty pink.

"I was jus' watchin' ya move around the kitchen an'...this happened."

"Do you want to try?" She asked and he thought on it for a moment.

"No." She looked almost disappointed, so he hastened to clarify. "I mean, not 'no', but I just wanna le' it happen naturally, yeah?"

"I understand." She smiled softly at him and he got another idea.

"Sit on the bar?" Her eyes went wide as she realised what he was intending and she nodded, he opened his fly to relieve the pressure even the loose trousers had on his extra-sensitive skin and he pulled himself free from his boxers, letting his erection be free in the air and twitch hopefully at being touched, but he planned to neglect himself for now. He could wait - he _finally_ had Tifa Lockhart within reach and he intended to enjoy the moment. He had realised that his obsession with going into the Dome Meadow all those nights for five years had been because he wanted to be near her, though he had no inkling of it at the time.

He watched her walk to the bar, then she bent over and he could see the sweet curve of her backside under her skirt and she slipped the little shorts down, followed by a pair of tiny little lacy knickers he had not expected her to even _own_ , but that his erection twitched excitedly at and he swallowed down a moan as he watched her kick them off and then she hopped up neatly onto the bar she had had installed the day before.

He wheeled over to her and she obligingly opened her legs and he situated his chair just so and applied the hand brake to ensure he did not move even a millimetre. He dipped his head forward and inhaled the scent of her and opened his eyes and looked up, she was looking down at him and he could not see her lips past the curve of her breasts at this tight angle, but he could see her soft red eyes, darkened with lust and anticipation. He did not disappoint her by making her wait and he touched his tongue to her inviting folds and swept the tip down the lovely little slit that was opened to him.

He teased around her labia, dragging the point of his tongue along her edges and then he growled in his throat as he plunged his tongue into her wetness. His erection filled out completely as he tasted her for the first time and he had a brief thought that perhaps if he could get it like this for long enough, he might some day be able to have penetrative sex again, but the thought dissipated as he flicked his tongue up and teased at her engorged clitoris and she moaned the most delightful he had ever heard. Penetrative sex was not the be all and end all anyway - this moment definitely underscored that.

He ignored the pain as pleasure flooded his senses and helped block the worst of it out anyway, he wanted to get a better grip and he lifted his arms and held on to her thighs as he worked his tongue around and inside of her, not neglecting her clitoris but also not focusing all of his attention on it; spurred on by the breathy moans and groans coming from his new lover, all of them getting catalogued in his mind forever.

He could dimly hear the kettle in the background start to heat the water as Tifa moaned his name and she dug her fingers into the shock of dyed red hair atop his head as he started to lavish more and more attention on her clitoris and one of his hands moved from her thigh and he slid his fingers into her slick channel and felt inside of her more deeply than with his tongue. He figured he would pay for this later and need his best painkillers but by Ifrit, it was damned worth it.

He crooked his fingers and poured his everything into bringing her to her own pleasure, no matter what happened with him. 

The kettle shrieked as it hit boil and clicked off, Tifa all-but screamed his name and convulsed around him as she peaked and orgasmed on to his tongue and he moaned deep in his throat as he felt and tasted the fruits of his success.

As she vibrated around him and then sighed as she came down, he pulled back and looked up at her. Her eyes were soft and clear, she had a very light sheen of sweat on her collarbone, her lips were open and she was breathing hard and she looked down at him with sated lust and happiness.

"Oh." He managed to get out before surprising the both of them by suddenly blasting into his first post-injury ejaculation and he let himself completely fall into it as he pulsed into his own lap and the pain was blissfully, momentarily gone as his pleasure synapses fired and overrode everything else.

He came back to himself and found the pain had not wholly returned afterwards and he guessed it would not for a while, though he would be interested to know just how long it might prove beneficial.

"Reno..." Tifa was looking down at him wide-eyed.

" _Fuck_ , but yer beau'iful." He chuckled "guess I couldn' help myself."

"Flatterer." She retorted, but her cheeks flushed even more and she hopped down and retrieved her underwear and her under-skirt shorts before handing him a wad of kitchen towel to clean himself off and she finished up the tea. As Reno tucked himself back inside his clothes and accepted the mug of tea, they wheeled themselves up to the roof again and he felt like things were most definitely going in his favour and he intended to seize his happiness.


End file.
